CA Technologies sets R&D centre in Bangalore

Company looks to benefit from rising startup culture in the city

Nasdaq-lised CA Technologies, which earlier this year invested with venture capital firm IDG Ventures India to get early visibility into enterprise software startups in the country, has taken another step to tap into the rising innovation culture in India by setting up a research and development (R&D) center in Bangalore.

The company believes that Bangalore has "its own unique sense of strengths when it comes to entrepreneurs and startups", and it is keen to benefit from the same.

"I think there's a huge startup culture in Bangalore, with thousands of startups. So we are very interested in getting the people here that are not only technically confident but are also fit the mold of doing innovation and work at the pace of start up," Ram Vardarajan, senior vice president and general manager (new business innovation) told Business Standard. "The companies that we are worried about are not the big ones that you might associate as CA's competition. We are worried about the three guys in a garage that are building the next new thing. We want to be that garage, and we want them to be in our garage, building stuff for our team. That's the reason for coming to Bangalore."

CA Technologies has a history of making acquisitions and expanding inorganically. The company remains open to making acquisitions as and when required in geographies, including India, he said. Partnering with startups is aimed at ensuring that CA Technologies "grows faster than what market is growing and increases its market share", Vardarajan added

He said, CA Technologies has also launched an advertising and awareness campaign in Bangalore to spread a word about its presence in the city and also it's intent to partner with startups and entrepreneurs here. "Our hoarding says 'we startup everyday at CA' and our advertisements read 'if you are excellent, we have a center for that'. That is clearly our message."

CA Technologies already has a R&D facility in Hyderabad, which houses over 2,000 employees. As much as 30 per cent of the company's global R&D is done in India.

The 50,000-square-feet center at Bangalore, which was inaugurated today, will have a capacity to house 400 employees and will initially be occupied by over 300 employees that would move into the new premise from other smaller offices of CA Technologies that were spread across Bangalore. The new center will consolidate teams from across three facilities in Bangalore from where they were operating so far.