Ketera to invest Rs 100 cr

Ketera Technologies, the US-based on-demand e-procurement solutions provider, plans to invest close to Rs 100 crore in Bangalore over the next 3-5 years. The company also announced setting up its only development centre in Bangalore.

Announcing these initiatives, Steve Savignano, chairman & CEO, Ketera said: "Our investment in this development centre is a reflection of our confidence in the ability to build a Silicon Valley-style team of performers and software engineers that are driven by a desire to innovate and deliver industry-defining software products.

The Bangalore centre will have exclusive responsibility for all our product development and will also be responsible for sales and marketing activities for the region."

Ketera's on-demand solutions provides enterprises with the applications and services needed to control and reduce corporate spending at a low cost of ownership. Its applications include spend analysis, sourcing, procurement, contract management and payment & reconciliation.

Added Savignano: "Our on-demand offering is a delivery model which combine hosted procurement applications including supplier enablement, hardware infrastructure, project resources, system administration and solution upgrades."

Announcing India expansion plans, Sanjay Swami, general manager, Ketera India said: "We currently have 25 engineers here and we will scale this upto 75 by June 2005. The facility has been built with a capacity of 125 developers and we will expand as and when needed."

Ketera is an IBM business partner, providing technology for IBM Leveraged Procurement Services, an e-business on demand offering.

Ketera has so far raised close to $20 million in three rounds of funding from investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital, Integral Capital and American Express.