Angel investors pump in Rs 150 crore into Elixir

Elixir Web Solutions, a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) company, has secured angel investments of Rs 150 crore, which it will invest over the next two years to set up its knowledge centre in Dehra Dun and for the acquisition of a mid-sized company in the US.

Growing at a 250 per cent year-on-year basis, the Rs 20-crore company is expecting to capture 10 per cent of the Rs 6,000 crore RPO market this year. "We will be a Rs 60-crore company in financial year 2006-07," said Perry Madan, associate partner, Elixir.

Speaking of its expansion plans at the inauguration of its delivery centre here today, Mohit Sareen, partner, Elixir, said, "We have invested Rs 4 crore in Pune for setting up of our deliver centre. Over the next two years, we will invest Rs 60 crore in the Dehra Dun Software Technology Park of India (STPI) for setting up of a 2,000-seater knowledge centre and our backoffice operations." It is also planning a delivery centre in Goa STPI, he added.

The company is currently present in the US, UK, Canada and Australia through channel partners. It is now looking at establishing a greater global presence in the US through an acquisition of a mid-sized web solutions company. "We are currently negotiating with a company with revenues of Rs 30 crore and would announce an acquisition by August," said Sareen while refusing to disclose any further details.

By 2008, the company plans to set up its own delivery centre in Eastern Europe, in Romania. "As IT/ ITeS companies like Genpact set up in Eastern Europe, we too would establish our presence there by 2008," said Sareen.

The expansion includes ramping up of its headcount of 450 people to 600 people by the end of the fiscal. As for Pune, it will grow from 60 people to 120 people. Elxir caters to 14 verticals, which include IT/ ITeS, life sciences, media, research and analytic, aviation, FMCG, and logistics.