WestBridge Capital Partners leads $13.5 Million investment in Bharti Telesoft

Bharti Telesoft, a leading supplier of Value Added Services (VAS) platforms to wireline and wireless carriers and one of India’s fastest growing technology company, announced a strategic investment from India’s leading venture capital fund, WestBridge Capital Partners; global venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital and industry leader, Cisco. WestBridge Capital Partners, the largest and most active capital fund in India, led the $13.5 million investment round with a $8 million investment.

Bharti Telesoft is a leading global provider of value added products and services for the growing mobile telephony sector across the world. It has consistently delivered high growth since its inception. Deployed in over 25 countries across 5 continents, these solutions deliver customer-focused services to over 100 million mobile subscribers worldwide. Telesoft’s list of blue-chip customers includes France Telecom, Orascom group of Egypt, Celtel of Amsterdam, GlobeTelecom from the Philippines and MTS in Russia.

Mr. Rakesh Mittal, Vice-Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, said, “It gives me great pleasure to partner leading global Venture Capital fund companies with a reputation of many success stories behind them. Bharti Telesoft has performed well over the last few years and this partnership will establish a platform to share knowledge and expertise to help us grow further.”

Mr. Sanjiv Mital, CEO Bharti Telesoft said, “Bharti Telesoft will use the investment to facilitate acquisitions, enhance product development and to further expand internationally. This investment will provide an added impetus to achieve our aim of being the leading global provider of innovative products, solutions and services to the telecom sector. We are delighted to have WestBridge Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital and Cisco as investors in the company and believe that their expertise and industry networks will help us strengthen our growth and leadership globally”.

As part of the investment, Mr. SK Jain, Managing Director, WestBridge Capital Partners, will join the Bharti Telesoft board. Speaking on the investment, Mr. SK Jain said, “We believe that value added services are poised for rapid growth globally. We have been very impressed with the Bharti Telesoft management team and the strategic guidance provided by Bharti Enterprises. We are very excited to be a partner in Bharti Telesoft’s continued rapid growth and helping them dominate the VAS space in India and globally.”

Speaking about Sequoia Capital’s strategic investment in the company, Douglas Leone, Partner, Sequoia Capital, said, “This is the first time we are investing in an Indian company. We have been very impressed with Bharti Telesoft and their innovative products, as well as how they have grown their business in various countries. We feel we can help them in their aim of becoming a major global player in the space of mobile VAS, worldwide. ”

WestBridge Capital Partners focuses on high growth companies that target both domestic and export markets across a variety of sectors including outsourced services, information technology, healthcare, wireless and the Internet. WestBridge Capital Partners currently manages a portfolio of 19 companies across different sectors. Many of these companies perceived as leaders in their sectors.