Techno Brain to invest $20 mn in India

Nairobi-based company, which has invested around $10 mn in its India ops since 2009, currently employs 1,600 professional globally

Techno Brain, a Kenyan information and communication technologies company, is planning to make an incremental investment of $20 million (approximately Rs 130 crore) in India over the next three years, according to its chief executive officer Manoj Shanker.

The Nairobi-based company, which has invested around $10 million in its India operations since 2009, currently employs 1,600 professional globally, including 175 at its research and development (R&D) centre in Hyderabad.

"The idea is double the Hyderabad headcount and build solutions on Internet of Things and mobile-based applications at the centre," he told mediapersons on Tuesday.

Techno Brain, which clocked revenues of $60 million in 2014, expects to close the current calendar with $90 million, primarily on the back of huge growth forecast for India. While Africa currently contributes 90 per cent to Techno Brain's revenues, India accounts for four per cent.

"While we used India for building skills and products, we are now sharpening our focus on India as a market for generating revenues. We expect around 10 per cent of our revenues to flow in from India this year," Shanker said.

Techno Brain, which recently bagged an integrated management system and treasury management project from the Uttarakhand government, is looking at public finance management, identity management, tax and customs, enterprise resource planning, RFID, cloud and mobility services from the public sector.

"We are planning to introduce three of our products on private cloud and mobile. The first of these products - Tax and Customs - will be rolled out globally, including in India, sometime next month," he said, adding that the company was gearing up to demonstrate the Tax and Customs product to various state governments pretty soon.