Cavium Networks plans to invest $10m in its Hyderabad centre

California-based Cavium Networks Inc, a supplier of communication semiconductor solutions for IP-based networks, plans to invest $10 million in expanding operations at its India development centre (IDC) located in Hyderabad.

Addressing a press conference, Syed Ali, president and chief executive officer of Cavium Networks Inc, said, "The company wants to expand its operations at its India development centre that develops software solutions for security and multi-core symmetric multi-processor (SMP) applications."

According to him, the investments would be made over the next three to six years and would mainly go in for increasing the headcount.

"Currently, we have 20 employees in the development centre. We plan to increase it to around 50 by the end of the calendar year, and to 100 by the end of 2006," Ali said.

"We are also looking at hiring more embedded Linux engineers, security and networking engineers, and quality assurance engineers," he added. The company also proposes to use part of the investments for providing new lab facilities.

Ali said that apart from developing the software for the company's processors, the IDC will also be involved in customising software based on the requirements of the customer.

Cavium Networks, which follows a January-to-December financial year, expects a 212 per cent growth in turnover to around $25 million as compared to $8 million last fiscal.

"We expect the growth in the turnover mainly due to the increase in the number of customers to 250 from the present 90," he said. The company, which shipped half-a-million processors last year, is looking at increasing it to around two million this year.

Cavium Networks, which is a venture-backed company funded by Menlo Ventures, Alliance Ventures, Diamondhead Ventures, Beachhead Capital, NeoCarta, NTT Leasing and China Development Industrial Bank, plans to go in for an IPO in 2006. The company has raised $61 million from four rounds of funding. In the last round of funding in the last quarter (October-December), it raised $21 million.

According to Ali, the company so far has three patents to its credit and has filed for 20 more patents. "Another ten patents are in the pipeline and we are looking for the appropriate time to file them," he said.