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Gurgaon News - 2004

Astra gets $4 m Westbridge funding

Gurgaon based BPO company Astra Business Services has received a dollar four million investment from Westbridge Capital Partners. The funds will be used for developing the collections operations in India, and expanding the sales and marketing initiatives in the US.

Besides business development, WestBridge will assist Astra in developing its Indian delivery systems and help in recruitment in India and the US.

Initially the company plans to focus on late stage or contingency collections in the healthcare and financial services sectors—the two largest segments of the US collections industry. However, it also plans to expand offerings in the telecommunications and utilities sectors. The company’s primary focus is to take advantage of the US-India model and provide higher recovery rates and better service on outsourced collections programs for its customers.

WestBridge Capital Partners is a Mauritius based US-India focused venture capital fund with approximately $140 million under management. The fund focuses primarily on cross-border US-India technology and services companies that are targeting global markets. It has invested in both IT and ITES companies.

Astra Business Services is a BPO company focused on the US collections market. The Company provides range of solutions for the entire spectrum of the consumer collections industry in the US.

WestBridge had identified remote services as a key focus area for their investments and has been actively evaluating companies in the BPO sector. The investment in Astra falls in line with this philosophy. WestBridge has been an active investor in the Indian BPO space with investments in companies like ICICI OneSource, Celetron, Indecomm Global and MarketRx.