OAK Investment Partners has invested $30 million as equity funding in the US-based Sutherland Global Services Inc, a business process outsourcing (BPO) firm with operations in the US, India and Canada.

The US private equity firm, with a total of $4.2 billion in committed capital, has taken a stake in Sutherland, said Mr Dilip R. Vellodi, Chairman and CEO, Sutherland GlobalServices. Sutherland would leverage Oak Investment's track record in healthcare and retail, he told newspersons here today.

Sutherland would deploy the funds in infrastructure creation in India and meet the growth in the number of employees. The company's staff strength would increase to around 9,000 in 14-18 months, from the present 6,500. About 85 per cent of the recruitment would happen in India, especially in Chennai and Mumbai where the company employs professionals in its four operations centres, he said. "India is the engine of hyper growth while we will continue to invest in other regions" he said.

The company's compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) since its inception in 1986 has been about 40 per cent. The growth, globally, would be 30 per cent to 35 per cent. The company, which provides customer management services, including technical support, customer care and marketing services for over 35 Fortune 1000 customers, such as AT&T, Gateway, Intuit, Amazon.com and Sony has annual revenues of about $150 million.