Talk to me: Yantra

Smart Yantra makes devices talk to each other. Incidentally, it is now waiting to talk to venture capitalists for funding.

The Yantra team

IT may have started at a psychological low point for the technology world but
since its inception in January 2001, Smart Yantra has developed six IPs, is
seeing deals happening and is confident business will boom by mid-2002. (As the
name suggests, Yantra is Sanskrit for instrument.)

In the embedded systems and digital signal processing (DSP) space, this team
of eight is convinced it is on the next big opportunity.

``Intellectual property is going to be key in the next generation
communication equipment. The networked home and the mobile user are realities
and the functionality of the devices is on the increase,'' says R.K. Patil,
Director, Business Development.

Indeed, DSP software and systems could be a multi-billion dollar market. That
it is very large, highly fragmented and has no large players makes it attractive
for product companies in this space.

With IPs based on evolving standards and suited to fit into new and different
applications, Smart Yantra's main stream of activity is to develop software
intellectual property in the MPEG space, says Dr Vishwakumara Kayaragadde, Chief
Executive Officer.

Its roadmap includes developing next generation software for video telephony,
wireless, video-on-demand and mobile video phones. Smart Yantra, which is
working on an MPEG decoder now, is firmly focussed on the consumer electronics,
telecom and VoIP markets, says Parag Naik, CTO.

With 18 people on board, ``our entire effort has been on product
development,'' says Aditya Kulkarni, COO. ``Our products can be demonstrated on
PCs and on Texas Instruments' DSP boards, he says.

Smart Yantra is targeting OEMs and the semiconductor and system-on-chip
companies with its products. According to Patil, the major markets are in North
America, Europe, Japan and South-East Asia. Smart Yantra is also targeting the
second-tier equipment manufacturers — the so-called box manufacturers making
portable MP3 players, set-top boxes etc.

Though it is an admittedly tough time for small and new product companies,
what with customers unwilling to try new products now, Smart Yantra has made
headway in North America and Europe. ``We expect to clinch some deals in the
next couple of months,'' Patil says.

The company is making a strong effort to license its IP, Kulkarni says. The
IP needs to be ported to the DSP platform and ``to make an entry in the market,
we are hoping to license the product as well as offer porting services.''

Angel-financed so far, the company is looking to raise $1 million in the next
year and $2-3 million in two-three years. For the medium-term, Smart Yantra is
planning to buy tools for software development as well as for developing the
board. ``We are a strong execution team, although our marketing and finance is
still not well developed,'' Kulkarni says. For a small product company, that
obviously needs to be addressed immediately.

www.dhyansanjivani.org

``We believe we are well placed to be an overseas development centre for MNCs
— in a year we have six demonstrable products,'' says Kulkarni. ``In fact we are
releasing an ISDN stack for a client in a month — where we have done the
software as well as designed the board and are talking to companies in the US
for getting outsourced projects.''

``We are partnering with a US company to develop IP where we provide the MPEG
expertise and the partner has VLSI hardware capability,'' says Kayaragadde. The
company plans to come out with a chip that could be marketed.

``Considering the potential for this space, we expect to garner $1 million in
revenues by the end of the year and double in terms of people to about 36-40 in
that time,'' Patil says.

Smart Yantra always intended to do only products — but has done projects
considering the market situation last year and as a means to be in touch with
customer expectations and needs, according to Kulkarni.

The second half of 2002 should see improved prospects in Smart Yantra's major
markets -- North America, Japan, Europe, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.