Manthan Systems eyes acquisitions overseas for growth

Bangalore, March 17 : Business intelligence and analytics product firm Manthan Systems is scouting for strategic acquisitions overseas to expand into new geographies and maintain growth, a top company official said Wednesday.

"We are looking at collaborating and acquiring organisations in the retail business intelligence (BI) space to help us leverage our abilities to create better products and reach a wider audience worldwide," Manthan founder and chief executive Atul Jalan told reporters here.

The six-year-old firm has developed a unique software product, branded 'ARC', for retail business intelligence and finance analytics, and rolled out its latest or sixth version (ARC 6.0) last year when the IT industry took a beating in the wake of the global financial crisis and subsequent recession.

"As a game-changer for retailers worldwide, ARC 6.0 version can be termed as artificial intelligence (AI), which helped us grow two-fold when many IT products and services firms struggled to cope with the meltdown," Jalan said.

He said by using his company's suite of products, retailers were able to plan ahead, make decisions faster and optimise their resources.

The Bangalore-based firm recently raised USD 15 million (Rs.690 million) from private equity fund Fidelity to invest in people, technology and sales and marketing in its traditional and emerging markets.

In the first round of funding four years ago, the privately-held firm had raised USD 9 million (Rs.414 million) from IDG Ventures and DFJ Ventures.

With 54 clients, including about 40 leading firms in retail and CPG (consumer packaged goods) businesses, the company grew by a whopping 110 percent this fiscal (2009-10) and is projected to clock USD 18 million (Rs.828 million).

Among its marquee clients are Abenson, Game Group plc, Haggar, Haggen, McDonald's, Novartis, Prada, Ripley, Robinsons, SM Retail group and Woolworth.

"Our products change how the retail customers adopt and use BI or analytics to stay ahead of competition in a niche segment where we architect, deliver and implement analytic solutions," Jalan said.