Together, they have invested $1 million, which will take care of the funding needs for the next 18 months. "The funds will be used to hire talent and carry out development activity," Indra Networks founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anupam Bhide told the press on recently, while announcing Intel's investment in the company.

But what makes a conglomerate like Intel to invest in a start-up like Indra Networks?

"As angel investors, we look at complex projects that require a lot of knowledge and high-quality manpower," points out Vikram Modak. "The chance of success is excellent in such projects. They come at the high end of the value chain, there's an entry barrier in the need for high-end skills, and have high IPR and revenue potential. Such new technology companies, catering to new markets, have strong growth opportunities and offer the best risk-return opportunities," states Mr. Modak.

According to him, Indra Networks falls in this category, with its focus on the Internet domain and its roots in embedded systems for Internet infrastructure. Indra Networks is into developing a special purpose Internet device called the web accelerator that will help website servers handle traffic better. The web accelerator comprises a new chip that is under development at Indra Networks, added with software to support it.

The web accelerator will screen specific traffic to website servers and address them, operating as 'intelligent assistants' to web servers. This will speed up response times and make websites faster.

"Internet traffic continues to grow dramatically, and popular web sites find it challenging to keep up with the traffic," says Monish Shah, co-founder and chief technology officer with Indra, underlining the need for new technology in this arena.

The speed of response is even more relevant in B2B and B2C applications where a delay in response time can mean the proverbial slip between the cup and the lip, resulting in a missed order.

Websites have addressed this problem by adding more servers. So much so, today there are sites that have thousands and tens of thousands of servers catering to the traffic. "The outcome is that not only do they incur a high cost of hardware, but also have to grapple with the problem of administering, maintaining and upgrading these systems," points out Shah.

Considering that most servers of important websites are located in the US, the cost of such administration is significant. The web accelerator being developed by Indra will supplement servers, do some of the work that would otherwise be done by the servers, and thereby speed up the traffic.

"These devices, by virtue of being designed to address specific purposes, are far more efficient. Thus, a server supplemented by a few of such devices will achieve faster response, bring down the cost of hardware and administration spent, and be easier to service," adds Mr. Shah.

The existing technology does the same through web caches and request combiners. Indra would be combining these techniques along with some new ones. The Indra Networks product will address a market that comprises web-based e-mail providers such as Yahoo! and Hotmail; search engines like Google, Alta Visa, Excite; B2B, B2C and C2C sites like Amazon, and ebay; financial transaction outfits like Fidelity Investments; web hosting ISPs like Exodus, Digex, and other large companies that host their own websites and cater to volumes of traffic.

In short, the market is significant. The final product, which is design ready, is expected to be market ready by the end of the year. A working prototype is expected to be ready for alpha and beta testing in a few months' time.