Caritor, formerly known as IT Solutions, a California-based services company will invest $10 million to expand in marketing and development centres in India.
Caritor was founded by former president of Wipro Software Systems Mani Subramanian 10 years ago and already has five development centres spread across Bangalore and Chennai.
The new investments will go towards opening two new development centres in these cities.
Caritor, which has about 1,200 employees, a majority of which are in India, will also hire 1,000 more employees for its new development centres.
"India is a significant player in Caritor's business strategy and growth. While our initial thrust on India was in offshore development, we are now looking at significantly increasing our marketing presence," said Phani Nagarjuna, global head (group strategy, marketing and products), Caritor.
Caritor, whose name is derived from the Latin word 'Caritas', which means caring and 'Toreador' in Spanish symbolising determination and courage now wants to focus on the domestic market in India.
"We want to become IT advisors or partners with large companies in India with the aim to provide high end consulting to these companies," said Nagarjuna.
Caritor has over 25 clients worldwide, while in India where it has been active in this segment for the last six months, it has four clients: Metro Cash and Carry, EID Parry's, TVS Motors and Sundaram Clayton.
The company is estimated to achieve a turnover of $58 million in 2003 and profit after tax is likely to be around $9 million. Last year, Caritor showed a profit after tax of $4 million.
To target large Indian corporates in the healthcare, education and retail verticals, Caritor will open sales offices in cities like Hyderabad and Kolkata apart from its existing offices in Mumbai and Delhi.
Currently, the Indian market provides less than one per cent of Caritor's revenues but with the thrust on the domestic segment, that percentage is expected to go up to five over the next three years.
