Seven years after being spun-off from Infosys Technologies, OnMobile, India's largest provider of value-added services to the telecom industry, seems to have taken the next step in its evolution. On September 13, the company acquired French telecom software company VoxMobili for Rs 150 crore and in the process significantly stepped up its presence on two counts. First, the company, which primarily focussed on voice-based value-added products for its telecom customers, now added a complementary data suite to its product portfolio and, second, significantly stepped up its customer profile with the addition of marquee names such as Orange, Cingular-AT&T, and France Telecom as part of the deal. "We would have bought the company purely for its products alone; the customer list was a bonus," says Arvind Rao, Founder and CEO, OnMobile, whose software is used by some 360 million mobile users.

As OnMobile (apparently valued at $300 million) makes the transition from an India-focussed entity into a more global player, it will have to compete with much larger players. But "our technology is superior and our talent is cheaper than those of most of our competitors," Rao says simply. He is also preparing a war chest for this expansion. "This is a cut-throat market and we have to be on the ball with product differentiation to stay ahead," he says. Sounds like a good strategy.