Roy: Logged in

New Delhi, Sept. 6: Raman Roy, the pioneer of business process outsourcing in India, has acquired a 40 per cent stake in Annik Technology Services, a market research services and analysis firm.

Roy, former chairman and managing director of Wipro Spectramind, and his team will join the board of Annik Technology Services by the end of the month. The firm specialises in the survey market research and data analytic domain for the BPO sector.

Roy told The Telegraph, “This is one of the series of future investments planned. It is just the start of a roller-coaster ride for us. We will announce another interesting investment in a BPO-related industry during the next four to five weeks.”

“I am also going to the US next week to meet potential partners. This would include a few venture capital companies. My three friends ? Raj Dutta, Sunil Gujaral and Vardarajan who had worked with me in different capacities at Spectramind ? have also invested in Annik and will do so in future ventures,” said Roy.

Roy and Vivek Paul were among the top executives who left Wipro earlier this year.

Roy has earned the moniker of ‘father of the BPO industry in India’ as he had established the country’s first call centre operations for American Express in the 1990s. He later established similar operations for GE and most recently Wipro Spectramind.

Roy’s investment in Annik Technology Services signals a strategic intent to support the high-end knowledge-related services and work with companies with depth and focus in niche areas.

Annik was founded by Rahul Sahgal and has 230 employees in two locations. It supports companies in the US, Europe and Australia.

Roy, however, declined to say how much he had invested in Annik. “The investment does not mean we have bought shares of existing investors. It is a small but fresh investment to help the company tide over its debt. So we have not acquired the firm,” clarified Roy.

The company helps global organisations with the execution and analysis of their survey research requirements, along with the development of tools related to data warehousing, data mining and analysis.

The team is geared to support large volumes and complexities of studies. In addition to domain knowledge, Annik works with various clients in reducing costs associated with conducting and analysing primary research.