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On-demand digital services company, iMerit Technology Services , will look to expand its presence in Europe, the UK, Singapore and Japan. It will also be looking to ramp up presence in its key market, the US and back home in India.
In terms of contribution to turnover, the US accounts for the majority 90 per cent. Germany and UK are the other key markets. India accounts for 5-odd per cent.
“We are looking at a larger presence in Europe and the UK, apart from expanding into faster growing south Asian markets. Japan and Singapore are also on our radar,” Radha Basu, founder and Chief Executive Officer of iMerit, told BusinessLine .
The company does not share turnover details. But, Basu claims, iMerit to be cash positive – that is, it is EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) positive.
Around 40 per cent of this Bengaluru-based start-up’s revenues comes from embedded computer vision, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning and detailed image labelling; another 33 per cent from data analytics while the remaining is from language processing, customer service and so on.
Incidentally, iMerit has already raised close to $4.5 million with The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Khosla Impact and Omidyar Network being the major investors.
And, Basu maintains that there is no immediate need to raise funds. “We have adequate cash,” she says.
Business model According to her, the company will look to double its headcount to 2,000 by December 2018. Approximately, 50-100 will be hired on a monthly basis.
“Nearly 80 per cent of the new recruits will continue to be from the under-privileged. But the remaining 20 per cent will be senior project managers or technical manager types,” Basu said. “Despite the perception that AI and machine learning are taking away jobs, we are trying to create new ones in these areas,” she added.
In fact, iMerit follows a unique recruitment model.
The company’s core strength lay in identifying ability in people without formal education and skill them. It employs youth – particularly, women – from the under-privileged background and nearly 52 per cent of its workforce is women.
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