Intel Capital, k1 Ventures of Singapore buy into Pramati Technologies

R Ravichandran in Hyderabad

IN a strategic decision, Intel Capital, the investment arm of the chip maker Intel, along with k1 Ventures of Singapore have picked up stake in the Hyderabad-based Pramati Techchnologies.

Both the companies have invested in Pramati Technologies, a provider of enterprise infrastructure software based on Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) standards, a senior official of Pramati Technologies said.

The two funds have also entered into an agreement with Pramathi to fund its expansion plans upto $5 million.

The closely-held technology company had earlier received $1.4 million from Citibank Private Equity in 1999 during the first round of funding.

“With our focus in research and development and experience in the Java community process, this investments from Intel Capital and k1 Ventures will help us make our technology available to a wider market segment,” the official said.

The second round of funding will help us to expand our international sales and marketing efforts. Intel and k1 Ventures felt that application servers are a critical component of the Internet infrastructure and e-business architecture and found Pramati is the right partner to invest in, the official claimed.

The company, which has developed a new application server 3.0 recently, proved to be the most complete implementation of the new EJB 2.0 specifications in the market.

The Alpha release of the Server 3.0 version in the JavaOne show held in San Francisco recently has received an overwhelming response.

“Our focused spend on research and development over the years and closeness with the Java Community Process has helped us deliver the EJB 2.0 server technology early to the market,” the official said.

It is expected to be officially launched in three months, he added.
Even big product makers like BEA Systems (famous for WebLogic), International Business MJachines (famous for Websphere) and Borland (for J Run) have admired the product and Pramati’s efforts, he claimed.

The company continues to maintain in leadership as an early technology provider of standards compliant application servers for J2EE applications, he said.

Its package includes Pramati Studio (integrated environment), integrated developer tools, technical support, server and platform architecture consulting and outsource development to source from, the official said.