The U&Me Communication on Tuesday forged a global distributor partnership with Australia's Private Equity Gateway Group that will take U&Me Plus Enterprise Mobile Messenger to new, developed and more rewarding markets.
Over a timeframe, ranging from 12 to 36 months, this agreement could lay the foundation for the Australian firm picking a stake in the Indian subsidiary of Malaysian firm OM Technologies.
Expressing satisfaction at the customer response to the new product, launched in November last year, U&Me Communication COO Hamid Rashid said that the Australian firm will take U&Me Plus to Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America.
Since PE Gateway Group works with several leading global companies and it would be easy to promote the product to them. Stating this, Mr. Rashid pointed out that it also meant more revenues as the realisation on the product is higher.
While the typical subscription charge for enterprises in India, South East Asian and Middle East markets range from $1-$3 per month/user, the same could be in excess of $20 in the markets to be explored by the PE Gateway Group.
Developed at the Hyderabad campus, U&Me Plus is a product bundling the features of WhatsApp, Viber and Skype and offering enterprises greater security. "This application is built on the most secure platform ensuring total enterprise security which no other OTT enterprise can match. It is HIPPA, ISO 19K, 20K and 27K compliant for enterprise grade information and data security," said a release. At the press conference Mr.Rashid, U&Me CEO Srinivas Odatti and the Global CEO of the Australian firm Andrew Smith were present.
To recruit more
Mr. Rashid told The Hindu that the headcount at the Hyderabad campus was to be increased from the existing 80 to its capacity of 120 by December. He said that this was as a result of the popularity of the `Made in India' application, with over a million downloads.
The proprietary, licensed, custom developed application has 600 enterprise customers in Asia, he said.
For the U&Me Communication it would be the first external investment and had so far put in $2 million on the operations. Revenues wise, it was targeting $10 million in 2015. Its current revenues are $3 million, while the turnover of the parent firm OM Technologies was $10 million.
