IT product firm Ittiam posts $20 million revenue

Bangalore -  Embedded software firm for digital signal processing (DSP) Ittiam Systems posted $20 million (Rs.100 crore) revenue for this fiscal (2011-12), with royalty income accounting for 35 percent, the company said Tuesday.

"Our revenue per employee productivity this fiscal has crossed about $100,000, which is twice the typical productivity in the Indian IT industry," Ittiam chief executive Srini Rajam said in a statement here.

The Bangalore-based 11-year-old firm, founded by Rajam, a former Texas Instruments India honcho, designs and develops embedded silicon chips for a range of applications, including smart phones, tablets, video communication and networking systems, media broadcast systems and Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) communication.

"We played a pioneering role in developing the Intellectual Property (IP) licensing business model, which enabled our global customers to rollout products with our embedded chips at an annual run-rate of 25 million units," Rajam said.

In line with its strategy of focusing on value creation through IP, Ittiam tops the number of patents granted for an Indian IT firm, with 30 patents and an additional 30 patent filings going through the patent review process.

The company received its first venture capital investment of $5 million in 2001 from the Bangalore-based Global Technology Ventures (GTV) which has a track record of investment in Indian technology firms.

"Since inception (in 2001), we have been impressed by Ittiam's capability to build a differentiated technology firm in the Indian product company landscape. The royalty impact achieved by Ittiam is unique," GTV head V.G. Siddhartha said.

Though the resilient Indian IT industry is dominated by large software services firms like TCS, Infosys and Wipro with global scale, the emergence of new generation companies like Ittiam with IP and product focus is keenly watched worldwide.

"Ittiam has distinguished by focusing on developing competencies in IP and product design. Its rapid growth is an encouraging sign for the new generation technology firms in India," Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIT-B) director S. Sadagopan said.

The company plans to foray into automotive infotainment and invest in its established business segments to spur growth.

"Our embedded chips are well received in the markets through innovative end products of our global customers. We are in a position to grow further and create a global showcase for an IP company originating from India", Rajam added.