Freeborders to spend US$20m on expansion
By Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-08 06:06

SHENZHEN: Positive about future business prospects, Freeborders is pouring hefty capital into its technology centre in Shenzhen to fund an expansion.

A global leading IT and software application outsourcing provider, Freeborders, headquartered in San Francisco in the United States, located its only technology centre in Shenzhen in 2002, with an approximate investment of US$7 million.

"Freeborders has recently secured capital worth US$20 million to fund the expansion of the Shenzhen centre," Fang Liang, president of Freeborders Asia, told China Daily at the Gartner's China Outsourcing Summit which ended yesterday.

The capital has come from a new investor FTVentures, as well as the existing investors of Internet Capital Group and TAL Investments, capital providers specializing in software companies. The capital will primarily be used to expand the technology centre in Shenzhen but it will also be used to expand sales teams in North America and Europe, Fang said.

The money going into the Shenzhen centre will not only be used to expand the overall workspace, but also to improve security and install cutting-edge broadband connectivity.

In addition, the company plans to increase the number of employed software developers from the current 400 to 600 in the first quarter of 2006, with a view to increase this to 1000 software developers by the end of next year, he said.

He said that Freeborders is also seeking opportunities to go public in order to raise more funds to meet the booming demand for its business, though he did not disclose further details or a time frame of this.

"Strengthening our market expertise and building the scale of our business are crucial to continuing our success at Freeborders," he said.

The firm has long provided technology solutions in the three vertical markets of retail and consumer goods, financial services, and software and technology.

The president said that Freeborders will gear up to further tap into business opportunities in the financial services sector, which boasts the largest market potential for software outsourcers in China.

He said that new business opportunities will be brought about by its new investor FTVentures, a capital provider to firms that create technology applications of interest to the financial services industry, since this company has a global partner network of 38 of the world's leading financial institutions.

"Representatives from several Wall Street financial companies have been lining up for talks with us since early November," he said.

Fang continued by saying that the company's core strengths, combined with the business prospect of software outsourcing services in China, have given Freeborders the confidence that they can continue to be successful in the future.

(China Daily 12/08/2005 page10)