NEWS-INDIA: IFC invests $2 million in Webdunia

[Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>]

International Finance Corporation invests $2 million in Webdunia

>From Indo-Asian News Service

Washington, May 7 (IANS) The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the
private sector lending arm of the World Bank, will invest $2 million in
Webdunia India Pvt. Limited, a leading Indian provider of multilingual
technology and content/media services.

Webdunia assists major clients in software, media, finance, consumer
products, and government to deploy Internet-based computer applications and
media content in 10 Indian languages.

The software is built around the company's proprietary transliteration
platform, patent pending, which allows the user to create local language
text using a standard Western keyboard.

"IFC recognises the importance of enabling technology in promoting the use
and dissemination of information to the larger Indian population through the
development of content in local languages," said Mohsen Khalil, World Bank
director for global information and communication technologies. "Webdunia is
well positioned to tap the large growth potential of this market in the
coming years."

Webdunia's transliteration engine serves as a platform for a variety of
other software applications offered by the company, including email, search
engines, chat rooms, discussion boards, instant messenger and e-greetings.

It also provides Internet-based media content and operates leading Internet
portals in four major Indian languages -- Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and
Telugu.

Launched in early 2000, Webdunia currently employs over 110 people. Together
with Walden International and Times Internet Limited, a unit of the Bennett
Coleman & Company Limited of India, IFC invested $2 million in a $3 million
capital raising.

"As the leading provider of Indian language enabling technology and
Internet-based content, Webdunia will use this new investment to expand in
order to meet the growing demand from clients in media, financial services,
industry and government," said Webdunia's CEO Vinay Chhajlani.

"IFC brings a new level of international recognition to the market for
information technology and Internet-based services," he said.

The World Bank recently established a global information and communication
technologies department in a bid to promote the transfer of information
technologies to the developing world.

The department focuses on communications networks and Internet
infrastructure projects that are expected to have a multiplier effect in
expanding the use of the Internet in developing countries.

Since its founding in 1956 through the close of the last fiscal year on June
30, 2001, IFC committed more than $31 billion of its funds and arranged $20
billion in syndications for 2,636 companies in 140 developing countries.

--Indo-Asian News Service