Mistral to open a design center in the U.S.

After a seemingly unending list of U.S. companies announced design centers in India, embedded software provider Mistral Software said it will open a design center in the United States this year and in the Asia-Pacific region in 2007.

Mistral said candidate Asian locations include Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Mistral already has three U.S. offices. It wants a U.S. design center to handle front-end projects while other projects are completed from India. "We propose to have 25 to 50 engineers in the U.S. center, which will have hardware and software skills," said Mistral president Anees Ahmed.

Mistral, based in Bangalore, recently opened a second Indian design center in Hyderabad and plans a third Indian center.

Mistral has dropped plans to merge with or acquire another company on, instead appointing an investment bank here to raise $10 million in venture funding. "We hope to raise the funds this year, which we need to scale the company in size quickly," Ahmed said.

Some funds may be used to acquire an embedded services company or hire engineers. Mistral also wants to develop its own intellectual property and expand sales and marketing efforts in the United States.

- K.C. Krishnadas
EE Times