Midas Communication Technologies Pvt Ltd, a Chennai-based telecommunications equipment company, plans to raise $25 million (Rs 100 crore), of which the International Finance Corporation (IFC) plans to finance $12 million as equity investment.
Argonaut Ventures, an existing investor in Midas, will fund $3 million. The other $10 million will be raised from a new equity investor. Debt financing has also been raised to satisfy additional funding requirements, according to information available in the IFC, part of the World Bank.
Shirish Purohit, Chief Executive Officer, Midas, said the additional funding would be used to expand operations in new markets like Africa, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), South America and Asia Pacific. “The process is going on and it is too early to talk about the funding,” he told Business Line.
Midas is seeking additional funding to scale up its operations by developing its family of access corDECT products, while targeting new clients in other low-income, low tele-density countries; expanding market reach through increased sales and marketing efforts; deepening existing customer relationships and continuing R&D on new promising technologies.
Founded in 1994 by a group of alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras), Midas designs “affordable and appropriate telecom access solutions” for both urban and rural areas in emerging markets. Its flagship product is BroadbandcorDECT, which is based on the European Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) standard.
The company plans to deploy a GSM access solution that is specifically designed for high modularity, low power, high reliability and low subscriber densities. It is also developing a 4G voice and data platform based on the IEEE 802.16e standard (Wimax-e) that will have applications for both urban and rural voice and broadband data requirements, says IFC.
Source: Sify