SAP to top $1bn investment here

Moreover, the company's venture arm will directly invest in the country for the first time.

"India has been the fastest growing country within SAP worldwide in 2007. We have doubled our revenues and customer base compared to last year. For the first quarter of 2008, SAP India registered a growth of 67 per cent in software license revenue," Bill McDermott, president and CEO, SAP Americas and Asia Pacific Japan states said without specifying a fresh investment target.

With the increase in business opportunities in India, McDermott said the company has already used a substantial amount of investment in expanding its sales and marketing reach, acquiring and retaining the best talent and building a committed team.

In 2006, SAP had announced an investment of $1 billion over five years to grow its business in the world's second most populous country.

SAP is also asking its venture capital arm, SAP Ventures, to invest in India to tap its large talent pool that is at the forefront of the technology revolution.

The venture capital firm plans to invest around $4-5 million in each company and this could go up to $8-10 million. The company does not plan to have a dedicated fund for this purpose, but will draw from its balance sheet.

"We are looking at a dozen investment opportunities in India. In the next few months, we will close the first three investments in the country," said McDermott. The company aims to invest in an additional 3-4 companies over the next 6-12 months.

SAP Venture in India will focus on investing in companies having a presence in IT-enabled services, managed services and customer-oriented technology.

"Interestingly, there are some innovative product companies in India. We would look at such companies that are India-focused and can help in growing into other geographies such as West Asia, Europe or the US," said Jai Das, partner, SAP Ventures.

Globally, the venture arm maintains its equity base below 20 per cent in any of the invested companies.

It plans to continue with the same in India.

"We prefer to invest in companies with a revenue in the range of $5-10 million. So we come into picture in the second or third phase of funding," added Das.

SAP Ventures has invested in close to 70 companies globally and two-third of these companies end up working with SAP.

SAP India will also focus on building SAP Consultants in India. "In a global study, we found that there is a skill shortage of 60,000 SAP Consultants. To address this, we are concentrating on the training programme. There is a similar shortage in India. A majority of SAP consultants will come from India, especially from tier II and III cities, as the opportunity is huge," said Ranjan Das, president and CEO SAP India.