Charged Inflows

The sense of inadequacy about the state of Bangalore's infrastructure
persists. But the companies keep flowing in. Bangalore continues to maintain its
average of three new companies starting off their R&D coccoons or sales
operations out of the city every week.

The list of at least 30 new companies who have either started off their
Bangalore innings in the last three months or plan to expand from other cities
in India, reads more like a 'who's who' of the IT firms. A few of these
companies have already put their facilities in place while most others are
negotiating real estate or fanning out their location scouts into the city's
exurbs to get a feel of the local rents.

Names like Skyworks, Flowgic, Intuit, C-Cor, Matisse Networks, QSG Soft,
Coldwatt, and Sonoa would not ring a bell for most people in India, but these
companies have been in existence for an average of five years or more and are
considered the most promising out-of-the-box thinkers in the business, with the
potential to carve out their markets in a variety of segments, said an
independent analyst.

However, HR sources in the know said that the new entrants have specialized
primarily in embedded systems design, Web-based technologies, and wireless
applications development and deployment. "We expect them to be quite
Java-driven in their services and the product engineering in Java apps will
throw open opportunities with the entry of these companies," said industry
sources currently into active recruitment for new and upcoming entrants in
Bangalore's crowded IT firmament.

Any JVs, in the short-term, appear ruled out for the new entrants given the
FDI status of these companies. Boosted by a round funding of $15.5 mn from
Austin Ventures and Matrix Partners in early 2005, Coldwatt (formerly GTI Power
Systems) started its India development centre in Bangalore in May this year to
commercialise power conversion technologies developed by the aerospace R&D
lab, Rockwell Scientific Company. The Bangalore centre is now the company's
largest engineering facility outside the US, with 160 hardware design engineers
engaged in developing power and embedded systems.

Coldwatt's seed-funding company, GTI Ventures, is also a key stakeholder in
RK Pachauri-headed TERI (The Energy Resources Institute), a research group
focusing on sustainable development and resource utilization.

Semiconductor and ASIC-design company Flowgic counts Cisco Systems,
Microsoft, LSI Logic, and Hughes Network Systems among its clients. Started by
Krishnan Anantharaman, Flowgic is ramping up worldwide and expanding beyond its
Chennai operations. The company plans to start a 20-strong R&D center out of
Bangalore, said industry sources.

Two-year-old networking technology vendor Matisse Networks is a
privately-held networking infrastructure company. With over $21 mn in venture
funding to date, Matisse Networks has specialized in bringing packet technology
to optical networks with its innovative DWDM packet-switch MeshWave.

Matisse has likened the product to a conventional switch whose backplane has
been replaced by the optical links that connect sites. So, rather than data
being switched in one port and out another, it is switched from one site to
another, according to Matisse CEO Sam Mathan. India-born Mathan was a key figure
in the resurgence of the networking equipment market. He was president and CEO
of Amber Networks when it was sold in a landmark deal to Nokia for $421 mn in
2001. Matisse's India design center has been operating since July 2003 out of
Hyderabad, and has primary responsibility for Matisse's switching and routing,
and network management applications. The company is said to be eyeing a 100,000
sq. ft facility out of Bangalore.

Intuit, a $1.87-bn company, began operations in 1984 and started its
Bangalore operations in July. Intuit develops personal finance and best-selling
tax saving software solutions like Quicken and TurboTax and its 21,000 sq. ft
product development center in Bangalore should be staffed by at least 50 people
for a start, say HR sources. Ranga Shetty, director, Product Development, Intuit
remains tight-lipped on the recruitment plans, instead citing the usual 'world-class
talent pool' benefits which Bangalore affords. "We will mainly focus on
leading product initiatives with our 1,700-strong R&D team in the US. The
idea is to expand our existing products and services offerings and putting a
revenue target to such plans would be premature," says Shetty. Inuit, which
has an ongoing product development partnership with Cognizant, does not believe
in simply repackaging its taxation and accounting products in Hindi. For Intuit,
as with most companies currently entering Bangalore, the staffing focus will be
almost 100% on lateral hiring as they establish their core teams, while,
directly bringing products to market will be a long-term goal.

San Jose, California—based Intacct Corporation has been delivering managed
ERP services as a service to small and midsize companies through accounting
outsourcers and independent software vendors (ISVs). Intacct currently serves
more than 1,800 clients: SMBs streamline business processes across distributed
organizations, ISVs integrate ERP core applications and offer end-to-end
solutions, and accounting firms provide private-brand outsource services through
the Intacct platform.

Communications services provider C-Cor was the first company to introduce
integrated circuits on telephone poles in the 1960s, C-Cor also pioneered the
first optical, 1 GB amplifier. It's acquisitions in the recent years have
helped the 50-year-old telecom networking giant put together a significant new
set of products, solutions and services. These include back-office, automated
subscriber support, next-generation IP technology, network capacity and security
management, and content management and delivery.

Flowgic, Intacct, and C-Cor did not respond to repeated queries on their
India plans or current product roadmaps. But the ability of the vast talent pool
to respond quickly to training from these dynamos, and the cost benefits and
value-adds accrued out their Bangalore operations, will keep the well-oiled
recruitment machinery in the city busy in the months to come.

Ravi Menon

And, Introducing to Bangalore...

Intacct Corporation Managed and on-demand, multi-entity ERP services. The
Intacct platform provides paid Web access to financial, supply chain, business
analytics, and other management applications.

CEO: Robert J Jurkowski

Founded: 1999

Headquartered: San Jose, California

Website: intacct.com

Matisse Networks A key innovator of DWDM packet switching for multi-service
metro networks. Essentially provides products which manage and connect dispersed
networking equipment.

CEO: Sam Mathan

Founded: 2003

Headquartered: Mountain View, California

Website: matissenetworks.com

FLOWGIC ASIC and microcontroller design services

President: Krishnan Ramamurthy

Founded: 1997

Headquartered: Fremont, California

Website: flowgic.com

COLDWATT AC-DC and DC-DC power saving solutions for computing,
telecommunications, networking, and storage applications. Innovations in circuit
design, semiconductors, and materials in power-class converters.

Chairman and CEO: Daniel A Artusi; V Thyagarajan, MD, Coldwatt India

Founded: 2000

Headquartered: Austin, Texas

Website: coldwatt.com

SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS Wireless semiconductor company focused on radio
frequency (RF) and cellular system solutions for mobile communications
applications. Offers front-end modules, RF subsystems, and cellular systems to
wireless handset and infrastructure customers.

President, CEO and director: David J Aldrich

Founded: 2002 (via merger of Conexant Systems and Alpha Industries)

Headquartered: Woburn, Massachussets

Website: skyworksinc.com