InterPro Holding, the Washington-based $670 million business process solutions provider, expects to invest close to $10 million in India through its subsidiary, InterPro India. The company expects about 1,500 recruitments in the next one year.

Arvind Swami, president, InterPro India, said the company will look at expanding its portfolio out of India in banking, financial services, and insurance segments (BFSI).

"The expansion will pre-dominantly be in areas related to BFSI and we will look at new offerings such as claims processing, forms processing, and mutual fund transactions," Swami said.

Worldwide InterPro and ProLease, its sister concerns, have about 3,000 seats and about 5,000 employees across the US, Europe, Australia, Philippines, China and India.

"We are about 300 employees in our BPO operations in India. By this time next year we expect to add between 1,200 and 1,500 more employees and add about 800 seats in 12 months," Swami said.

The average investment per seat, Swami said, will be about $6000-$8000. "We are conservative and are comfortable with this level of investment," he said.

InterPro expects revenues of $115 million by December 2004 through its operations in countries and continents, other than North America.

The American market is serviced through ProLease, which has revenues of close to $560 million, by offering outsourcing solutions to medium and small enterprises in the US.

"InterPro offers business process solutions only in China, Australia, Europe, Philippines and India," he said.

InterPro, which offers services such as pay roll processing to India-based companies, is targeting revenues of about $8 million from India this year.

Swami, an ex-southern film actor, looks after the company's interests in strategising its entry into new BPO business, evaluating partnerships, and also exploring new geographies for creating new off-shoring facilities. Swami also is in-charge of all mergers and acquisitions in the group.

"We have grown close to 70 per cent year on year for the last five years, and most of the growth has come inorganically. We have acquired close to 18 companies since we started in 1994," Swami said.

According to Swami, the next year the company will focus on knowledge management and it has already put in place a 30-member team.

"We have grown fast and now it is time to take stock and learn from what we have achieved over the last nine years," Swami said with regards to the knowledge management initiative.