Collector of U.S. Receivables with Operations in India Wins Backing to Sustain Rapid Expansion

Astra Business Services, an American company collecting defaulted debts from U.S. consumers, today announced the closing of its $9.2 million Series “B” round of venture financing. Sierra Ventures was the Series “B” lead investor. WestBridge Capital Partners, Astra’s original Series “A” institutional investor, substantially increased its investment in the company. The Series “B” financing brings Astra’s total venture funding to $14.5 million. Astra will use the new capital for technology and other resources to expand the India-based infrastructure used to serve its U.S. clients.

Astra was created to address the shortage of qualified personnel in the U.S. to collect American consumer receivables by tapping the huge pool of educated and computer-literate talent in India. The company uses advanced technology and has relocated a full team of experienced U.S. managers to India. Astra carefully selects English-literate Indian university graduates with prior business experience, and trains them to work effectively with the clientele of credit grantors, debt buyers and collections agencies in the U.S. Astra’s Indian account executives help American consumers to resolve obligations related to the services of healthcare providers, credit card issuers, and phone companies.

Astra’s first operations center is in Gurgaon, near Delhi. A second Indian center will be added shortly. With its new funding completed, Astra expects to expand its operation to over 1,000 account executives.

“We were attracted by Astra’s impressive record of growth as well as its innovative business approach, especially the permanent relocation of an extensively experienced management team to India,” said Tim Guleri, Managing Director at Sierra Ventures, which contributed $5.5 million to Astra?s second round. Guleri and Sierra Ventures Managing Director Peter Wendell will guide the company’s continued growth, with Wendell serving as non-executive Chairman of Astra.

WestBridge Capital Partners, Astra’s original institutional investor, contributed $3.4 million to Astra’s new equity financing, more than doubling its investment in the company. “The close cooperation between the management Astra has transferred to India and the professional workforce being built here enables Astra to accomplish more than other offshore outsourcing companies,” noted KP Balaraj, Managing Director and co-founder of WestBridge, who is located in Bangalore. Balaraj is joined on the Astra board by Sumir Chadha, Senior Managing Director and the other WestBridge co-founder, who works from WestBridge’s U.S. office in Silicon Valley.

Feroze Waheed, Astra’s American CEO, commented from India, “We are very gratified by the endorsement from Sierra Ventures and the renewed commitment from WestBridge. With the high caliber of the personnel we’re able to hire in India, and the attractive economics of doing business here, we are able to resolve consumer delinquencies in a very professional manner. We can pursue obligations that cannot be handled cost-effectively by most U.S.-based agencies because of their Stateside cost structure. In the end, Astra’s approach results in greater net recoveries for the credit grantors and other debt owners we serve. We think this is important at a time when rising interest rates combined with record levels of indebtedness are sure to put extraordinary pressure on American consumers and to increase significantly the need for debt resolution and collection.”