Karnataka ex-IT secy Kulkarni launches BPO firm

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 07 November 2003, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: After spearheading the IT, ITES and Biotechnology growth in the state, former IT and BT secretary to the Government of Karnataka, Vivek Kulkarni has launched a BPO company under the banner B2K Corp Pvt Ltd. Extending services such as a contact center, business analysis and software, the company plans to be 1000 employee strong within the next two years. Presently 130 people strong, the revenue projection during the first year of operations is $6 million and is expected to more than double in the very next year at about $15 million, according to Kulkarni, the Chairman and CEO of B2K, short for Byte to Knowledge. Apart from Kulkarni, the company, is promoted by Lathika Pai, Probir Ghosh, Madhukar Angur with additional funding from UTI Ventures, Oak Investment and Dhanalakshmi Bank Limited. Although the financial details of the stake holding pattern of the company was not disclosed, it was informed that the company has received a first round of funding to the tune of $4.1 million. "The cash is there. Any BPO company with a client or two in hand has banks queuing to offer funds," said Rajakumar, CEO and Managing Director, UTI Venture Funds. In that regard B2K has 8 clients and plans to add two more by the end of this calendar year. To assist the company scale up immediately in terms of infrastructure, customers and employees, it has acquired Talisma's outsourced services business and merged it with US based Virtual Source Inc, run by Pai brining in the business analytical and software services expertise. In the software services front, the company has a strategic alliance with MindTree Consulting. With a 100 per cent subsidiary in the US, the company's focus is mainly in the overseas market, especially that of North America. It promises to bring technical support mainly via e-mail, chat and voice to companies in the hitech, healthcare, finance and telecom. (Source: CIOL)