Argo Global president and also GSM Capital manager HH Haight told eFE thatAsia, especially India, was a huge market for the space and the companywould earmark over 10 per cent of the total fund for the region. ``Initially we thought that the region will require only less than 10 percent of the fund but now we realised that Asia India is much more than whatwe estimated and expected,''Haight said. He said about 40 per cent of thefunds would be reserved for European markets while the remaining 50 per centwould be for North America.

Haight said GSM Capital had already dispersed $135 million in 23 UScompanies in the wireless Internet technology segment since the VC company'sinception in 1997.

``Many of those we have we funded are Indian entrepreneurs based in the USor firms directly or indirectly connected to India,'' he said. The VC firmrecently invested $7.5 million in a California-based start-up Onscan Inc.incubated by Infosys Technologies Ltd. ``Onscan is the first India-relatedfirm we funded from our second chunk of funds,'' Haight said.

He said during the last two years, GSM Capital had received over 1200applications from various companies for VC funds of which the company couldfund only around 20. Haight said, ``We will be interested only in thewireless Internet application or telecom areas.'' According to Haight,various wireless carriers and spaces GSM Capital invested include FranceTelecom, Deutsche Telecom, Sonera, Voicestream, Aerial, Omnipoint, EASTTelecom, Singapore Telecom, Smartone, Microcell and the Telesystems Groupetc.

He said Argo Global's association would provide these portfolio firms asignificant advantage in marketing their products and services besidesgaining access to key decision-makers.

Argo Global currently has offices in Boston, Montreal, Hong Kong and Londonand a foray into China through a partner was in the pipeline, Haight said.