Telsima Corp. has raised $50 million in new funding in an effort to secure a strong foothold in India's broadband wireless market.
Telsima, which was founded in Santa Clara in 2004, is a maker of broadband wireless equipment for telecom service providers.
Telsima's chief executive officer Alok Sharma has a vision to make the company a “global telecom franchise out of India” by focusing on the Indian market.
India has been clearly documented as a country with a rapidly expanding telecom market, with some numbers suggesting approximately 40 percent growth a year. Due to India's lack of wired telecom infrastructure this growth is typically considered to have the most potential in the wireless arena. According to Sharma, India adds 7 million wireless voice customers a month and is on track to approach 500 million wireless users by 2010 to 2011.
With surging interest from many foreign companies in addressing India, Telsima has launched operations on the ground in India, in New Delhi and Bangalore, hoping to be a local company serving the local market.
“There is no company of significance that serves local demand in India,” Sharma said. “Telsima is trying to create a global entity using the local marketplace.”
However, Sharma believes just being an Indian company addressing the local market is not going to be enough — his company has to be the best option.
“We have to bring value to customers,” Sharma said. “Be American, buy American didn't save the American car industry. I don't think be Indian, buy Indian will save us.”
Telsima first received venture capital funding in late 2005 and that money helped the company get develop its technology and launch products. “This larger funding is to support the growth of the company,” said Sharma.
Initial investors NewPath Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, CMEA Ventures and JAFCO Asia participated in the recent funding.
According to Sharma, Telsima currently has 250 employees and will grow to 300 by the end of the year.
Sharma acknowledges that the $50 million in funding is a large number, but he believes the funding is in line with the company's success so far and is needed to be able to compete with some of the large telecom equipment makers that are targeting India, such as Alcatel, Nokia and Samsung.
Despite, Telsima's India presence and focus the company retains its headquarters in Santa Clara. About 20 percent of the company's workforce is in Silicon Valley, focusing on the company's legal and finance needs.
The company's chief technology officer, Burcak Beser, is also headquartered in Silicon Valley.
“All the early stage private equity is in Silicon Valley,” Sharma said. “Companies have to have their genesis in Silicon Valley.”
Most of Telsima's hardware development is done in Europe. The company's software development is done in India, as well as the company's manufacturing and sales support.
With a close to 50-50 split of employees domestic and international, Sharma views Telsima as the perfect model for an emerging global company.
“Our research and development has been global from day one because it has to be,” he said. “Talent is not the monopoly of any given market.”
The company's management team also includes Protip Ghose, vice president of sales and marketing; Mahesh Karanth, chief financial officer; and Raj Iyer, vice president of manufacturing and Bangalore operations.
Prior to joining Telsima, Sharma was the vice president and general manager of the worldwide cable business at Juniper Networks. Before Juniper Networks, he was the founder, CEO and president of Pacific Broadband Communications, which was acquired by Juniper Networks for $200 million in December 2001. Prior to founding Pacific Broadband, he held senior management and technical positions at Hewlett Packard Co., Fujitsu/Amdahl, Integrated Device Technology Inc. and Siara Systems Inc.
He has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, and a doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Source : Indus Business Journal