Over the last few years, there has been a rapid growth in number of global capability centres (GCC) in India as multi-national companies have rushed to take advantage of the huge talent pool that the country offers.
Belgian telecom operator Proximus will soon join the close to 1,700 GCCs that were there in India last year, in setting up its GCC here in the country.
The Brussels-based company aims to set up its GCC in Bengaluru, the company's chairman Steffan De Clerck said on Wednesday.
"We trust the Indian talent, and we saw the Indian talent, and so it's the beginning of a consideration of saying, okay, that's the country where we have to go to," he said.
The company has already put a CEO in place and the CEO will be looking at putting a team in place, comprising young as well as experienced people.
Proximus, last year, acquired a 57.56 per cent stake in Indian CPaaS (communication platform as a service) company Route Mobile for around Rs 5,924 crore.
Route Mobile is looking to double its revenue to around $1 billion over the next 3-4 years from around $500 million, its CEO Gautam Badalia said.
He says the company has partnerships with over 280 mobile telcos globally. Currently, around half of its revenue comes from India. It sees a lot of growth opportunities in the global market.
"We have Masivian, which is a leader in Colombia and Peru. And if we can increase our foothold in Mexico and Chile, I think we would want to do more investment into that market. Africa will go through a similar kind of digitization wave," said Badalia.
He also believes the company has scope for bigger inroads in the developed market. The USA itself is almost 50 per cent of the CPaaS pie, he pointed out.
The company will cross-leverage the strengths of Proximus Group firms, which also includes cyber security company Telesign and digital communications company BICS, as it looks to tap into more opportunities abroad.
The rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies also opens up more opportunities said Badala, adding the company will look at "bolt-on" acquisitions to help it accelerate in that space.
On Wednesday, a Belgium delegation led by Princess Astrid paid a visit to Route Mobile's office in Mumbai. Several startups made funding pitches at an event organised there.
