Goldman values Tejas at $625 million

Tejas Networks, the Rs 240 crore Bangalore-based optical networking firm which makes proprietary boxes for transmitting data for telecom carriers, has been valued at Rs 2,400 crore ($625 million) by Goldman Sachs when it recently invested around Rs 95 crore in this seven-year-old firm.

Tejas is aiming to go public next year and its valuation is expected to be close to Rs 3,200 crore ($800 million), when it will have a topline of around Rs 400 crore.

According to industry information, around 10-15 per cent is expected to be offloaded, with Tejas raising around Rs 300 crore in the process. Tejas Networks offered not to comment on the valuation by Goldman Sachs.

The investment by Goldman Sachs in the firm takes the total private equity investments in the company to Rs 280 crore ($73 million).

Other private equity investors, include Sandstone, Intel Capital. Mayfield Ventures, Battery Ventures, SUN Group of the Khemkas, besides ASG Omni. IL&FS Venture was among the early investors who have exited the firm. Tejas has Silicon Valley billionaire entrepreneur Gururaj Deshpande as its mentor and early-stage investor, besides his company Sycamore, also has an exposure.

Tejas Networks is among the few homebred firms focussing heavily on the Indian markets and counts almost all telecom service providers among its customers.

The company has also actively tied up with companies like Nortel as an OEM partner to expand its customer base globally and is actively selling its wares in the Asian markets as well.

The company is expected to cross the Rs 400 crore mark during the present fiscal, growing 70 per cent over last year. Tejas, during the past three fiscal has been almost doubling its topline from Rs 47 crore it posted in FY'05.

In the run-up to the public issue, Tejas has been creating immense bandwidth to its management by appointing former Cisco India head Rangu Salagame as president and by roping in Mohandas Pai, Infosys' Vice-President-HR onto its Board of Directors.