US co eyes RT Outsourcing stake
NEW DELHI: US-based venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is close to picking up a minority stake in Delhi-based RT Outsourcing, a company that offers repair and refurbishment services, technical support and call centre operations to third-party companies.
Although the exact deal size could not be ascertained, a person familiar with the development pegged it at Rs 65-75 crore. “Talks are at an advanced stage and the transaction is expected to close next week,” said the person, on condition of anonymity.
This would be the third round of capital infusion in RT Outsourcing. The other two VC funds, which invested in the firm, are Motilal Oswal and Sonoma Management Partners.
Motital infused Rs 31 crore in 2007, while the figures for Sonoma are not known. Emails sent to both RT Outsourcing and NEA did not elicit any response.
RT Outsourcing was established in 1995 and its clients include Microsoft, Ericsson, HP and Honeywell, among others. The company has a headcount of over 3,500 people across India.
The funds raised will be used by RT Outsourcing to set up a global repair plant in Chennai. Currently, it runs around 415 repair centres of which 60 are company owned and run. The rest are operating as franchisees.
NEA manages assets worth over $8.5 billion globally. Its India, its advisory team comprises Ben Mathias (vice-president), Jerry Rao and Amit Sharma (both venture advisors).
The firm was recently in news when ICICI Venture’s senior director Bala Deshpande joined the investment team.
NEA’s India investments include Sasken, Novatium and ISGN Technologies. NEA also runs an affiliate fund in India called NEA-Indo US Ventures.
