Comviva expands global operations, targets 30% growth
Comviva, the Gurgaon-based provider of value added services to operators, is targeting a 30 per cent growth rate by the end of March 2011. Sangeet Chowfla, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Comviva, told Telecom Yatra, "Our CAGR has been growing at 30 per cent over the last few years and we expect to achieve the same next year also."
The company has been making investments in its international operations since last year and is now planning a presence in Miami, USA within the next couple of months. According to Chowfla, Comviva has set up operations in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Dhaka, Colombo and Bangkok last year. He said, "About 65-75 per cent of our business comes from overseas. We have seen very high growth in all markets. About one third of our revenue comes from India, one third from Africa and about 20 per cent from the Middle East. We are witnessing rapid growth in Latin America."
Comviva is open to mergers and acquisitions within India as well as abroad. Chowfla said, "We continue to talk to companies for acquisitions. Once a company with the right fit and right commercial arrangement comes, we will look at acquisition." He further said, "Our goal is to be amongst the top three market players in India."
Speaking on future plans, Chowfla said, "We are looking at providing mobile data services. We will be offering applications - video calls, live TV and security surveillance - and also the necessary infrastructure to help operators manage the data explosion which will come with a higher bandwidth. We are also looking at mobile internet gaming, which is not so popular currently due to bandwidth related issues."
Comviva has offices in 15 countries and serves about 100 telecom operators in 80 countries. It is currently working with several international operators such as South Africa's MTN, Bahrain-based Zain, France Telecom, UAE-based Etisalat and African telco Tigo. In late 2007, Comviva, then known as Bharti Telesoft, acquired Jataayu Software, a mobile Internet company and in April 2009, its name was changed to Comviva Technologies. Bharti Enterprises, Sequoia Capital, Cisco Systems and the company's employees are the investors in Comviva.
Comments (1)
The Future of VAS looks really bright. The industry will definitely witness more of such global expansions by other players in the VAS domain.