MUMBAI, JUNE 26: Software blue chip Infosys Technologies Ltd said on Monday it had spun off Onscan Inc, a wireless Internet solutions firm formed by a group of its employees and incubated by Infosys, as an independent company. Infosys said California-based Onscan had obtained venture funding totalling $12 million from US-based Argo Global Capital and H&Q Asia Pacific. Investors in Argo include France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom AG, Sonera of Finland, Singapore Telecom, Voicestream Wireless Corp, ESAT Telecom Group Plc and Smartone Telecommunications Holding Ltd. "The (Onscan) team represents some of the brightest talent from Infosys and we will be supporting them fully in going after the huge wireless Internet market," SD Shibulal, a director at Nasdaq-listed Infosys, told the news conference. Shibulal said that following the venture funding, Infosys's stake in Onscan would be a minority 20 per cent. He said Infosys had made no financial investment in promoting Onscan but the start-up firm had used Infosys's human and technical resources. "Revenues from Onscan (to Infosys) will come from the system integration relationship we have with them plus on capital gain we have made over the long term," Shibulal said in reply to a question. Infosys said in March it was considering incubating Onscan on the basis of a business proposal made by its employees. A statement issued at the news conference said Onscan is targeting developing and implementing wireless Internet solutions for global enterprises, wireless carriers and E-commerce market segments. It said Onscan, with 23,000 registered users, offers Internet users alerts and notifications, two-way transaction completion and hands-free voice-enabled interactivity for mobile users. Arvind Rao, chief executive officer of Onscan, said he expected Onscan to break even in about 18 months and to employ 200-250 professionals over the next 24 months.
