VCCircle

Telecom solutions provider One97 is looking to raise additional funds for its expansion plans in India and abroad.

Telecom solutions provider One97 Communications is planning to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2010. The private equity-backed company is looking to raise additional funds for its expansion plans, both in India and abroad.

"We may look at raising up to $100 million," said Vijay Shekhar Sharma (in pic), founder and managing director of One97, in an interview to VCCircle. The nine-year-old company is expected to hit the market in the next two quarters.

Noida-based One97 has raised private equity funding from SAIF Partners, Intel Capital and Silicon Valley Bank in two rounds of funding since 2007. The overall funding stands between $24 million and $28 million, with the last round coming in January 2009. "We plan to give our stakeholders the right amount of return on investment and liquidity at the right time," said Sharma.

Currently, only OnMobile Global Ltd is the listed mobile value added services firm in the country. It trades at a liquidity premium of 10-20%, with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 30. Its other competitors include Spice group’s Cellebrum and Comviva (earlier known as Bharti Telesoft).

One97 builds a platform across which mobile value added services can be delivered. This includes services like music, messaging, customer care, m-commerce, social applications, among others. Its clients include Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, Tata Indicom, among others.

It’s also seeing other revenues streams going forward. “Enterprise is a segment in which we see a great uptake,” said Sharma. Its corporate clients include ICICI Bank, Adlabs, Hindustan Uniliver Ltd, Nokia, Ogilvy, etc. One97 is expecting revenues of around $30 million this year and is targeting a $100 million top line in next two years. It also plans to expand its current workforce of 750 to 1,000 by end of this fiscal year.

Besides, One97 has also set aside $5 million to incubate companies and invest in new ideas. It has already incubated or invested in three such companies. These include Oorja, a customer analytics firm; Paytm, a mobile commerce platform and Oc2ps, a social networking application.