iSmart to acquire Java player

Prachi Verma in New Delhi

Smart card system integrator iSmart International Limited has zeroed in on India as its base to serve the international market and has earmaked Rs 15 crore to be infused in building up its infrastructure.

Part of the Rs 15 crore (about Rs 3 crore) will also be used to acquire a Bangalore-based, 22-employee, Java software developer firm which will form a major part of its center of excellence for Java cards. This center is expected to be up and running in Bangalore in a month.

“It makes sense to acquire an existing company working on Java software development solutions for setting up a center of excellence for Java cards. This acquisition will give us expertise and will save on our time and costs,” iSmart International Ltd, CEO, George White said.

Besides Rs 15 crore, the company intends to invest Rs 200 crore ($40 million) in setting up 18,000 terminals for smart cards in the next two months throughout the country.

“India has a great potential for smart cards with a market for 800 million cards but the country has no terminals. In another two years time we intend to set up 18,000 terminals across the country which will funded from our internal accruals,” Mr White, who recently sold off two of his UK-based companies, said.

iSmart will also be setting up another center of excellence for EMV (Europay Mastercards Visa) cards in three months time in Mumbai. The company already has a center of excellence for ‘MULTOS’ cards (multi-application based cards) in Mumbai.

“We plan to set up centers of excellence for Java cards and EMV cards in another 3 months. These centers will serve both the domestic and international market,” Mr White said.

iSmart will be running a pilot project along with Citibank and Indian Oil Corporation Limited for smart cards. Here, iSmart will offer its technology to convert 75,000 magnetic cards to smard cards, which will enable an user to use the card for e-cash transactions and loyalty programmes.

“We have selected India as a base for our operations due to low cost advantage and high skilled labour, thus saving almost 90 per cent of our costs,” Mr White said.

iSmart is presently working on 5 projects which include projects for the Indian defence forces and banks.