The Hindu Business Line : SatNav Tech sews up $10-m expansion plan

Hyderabad, Aug. 30 SatNav Technologies has embarked on plans to expand its domestic and international operations with an investment outlay of $10 million.

The Founder and Managing Director of SatNav, Mr Amit Prasad, said that from a start-up a few years ago, the company has now moved on to the next phase of growth which is reflected in the performance of the company.

Speaking to Business Line from Singapore, Mr Prasad said that the company had consolidated its business in India and now planned to expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region and West Asia with its flagship product ‘a-mant ra’, a facilities management suite.

“Initially, the company was in pursuit of investments from private equity players. But now the strategy has changed. We plan to meet our expansion requirements through a combination of internal accruals and debt,” he explained.

Both the ‘a-mantra’ suit and the GIS (geographical information system) that the company markets are now being addressed through retail model. This has begun to yield results necessitating expansion.

As a part of diversification, the company plans to offer a hosted service to track fleet movement. The company expects to offer this within couple of months helping vehicle operators better manage their distributed fleet.

Mr Prasad was in Singapore to receive RedHerring top 100 Asia award. “This is a vindication of innovative products that the company offers in the marketplace. Being an IP based company, this will take us to the next phase of growth,” he said.

“The company’s products in car mapping services are available across 6 major cities now and by the end of September 2007, we expect to cover 24 cities,” he said.