Fidelity, Nexus invest Rs 80 cr in Netmagic

PVT EQUITY WATCH

The Mumbai-based managed IT services provider Netmagic today announced it has received Rs 80 crore in private equity funding as part of its Rs 100 crore expansion plans.

The funding was led by Indian proprietary venture and growth capital arm of Fidelity International Ltd (FIL) and Nexus India Capital. This is Fidelity's first investment in an Indian IT company.

Netmagic, which employs more than 250 personnel, specialises in internet data centres, managed hosting, remote infrastructure management, mail and messaging.

In the first round in 2000, when the company was launched, Netmagic had raised $4 million from Exodus founders B V Jagadeesh and K B Chandrashekar, investor Kanwal Rekhi and venture capitalists including eVentures India and Global Technology Ventures.

NetMagic was founded by Sharad Sanghi, who had worked for the Unified Network Management Architecture Group at AT&T Bell Labs. Sanghi also worked on the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNet), which formed the internet backbone in the US in the early 1990s.

Privately-held Netmagic will use the proceeds of this financing to accelerate business and expand its footprint in the domestic and international markets by building a nationwide network of data centres. The company operates four data centres "� three in Mumbai and one in Bangalore. It also operates a virtual data centre in the US.

"Three more data centres will be set up in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai respectively. These apart, we are also looking at acquisitions for growth," said Netmagic CEO Sharad Sanghi.

Netmagic's client list includes domestic and global firms in banking and financial services, media and entertainment, ITES, manufacturing, travel and tourism.

"Over the past few years, Netmagic has achieved growth rates of over 70 per cent and gained a significant market share in the hosting services market," said Raj Dugar, senior MD, FIL's Indian proprietary venture and growth capital arm.