By Kalpana Shah

MindTree Consulting, an Indian IT services company that offers software development, chip design, IT maintenance, SAP implementation, and a host of other services, will raise $70 million by listing on India’s National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange.

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Some of the funds raised by the Bangalore-based company will go toward prepayment of debt, some toward building new development centers in other locations in India, while a portion will fund an acquisition.

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Ashok Soota, chairman of MindTree, said at a press conference Saturday that his company had signed a term sheet to acquire an integrated circuit design firm, but that MindTree was conducting due diligence. He declined to divulge the name of the company.

MindTree has made two acquisitions in the past. In 2004, it bought the software division of ASAP, an SAP implementation and product company. In 2005, MindTree purchased Linc Software Services.“We will use M&A much more aggressively than we have in the past,” said Mr. Soota. “Acquisitions will play a larger part in our growth from now on.”

“We will use M&A much more aggressively than we have in the past,” said Mr. Soota. “Acquisitions will play a larger part in our growth from now on.”

Scrappy SurvivorThe company plans to add a new service line to its portfolio every year and create new intellectual property in R&D services, a rapidly growing business for Indian IT companies.

MindTree became the first midsize software company in India to reach the $100-million revenue mark in 2006. Founded in 2000 by senior professionals from Wipro, Lucent Technologies, and Cambridge Technologies, the company now employs over 4,000 people.

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The company’s survival seemed in doubt early in its history. Most of MindTree’s initial customers were Internet companies, but several shut down in the wake of the dot-com bust, just a year after MindTree had signed them.

In today’s high-growth market, it’s easy to forget how the company barely managed to keep its workforce on the payroll. Unlike larger IT firms such as Wipro and Infosys, MindTree tapped the local Indian market early on, and over 5 percent of its revenues are now drawn from within India.

IndiaBut MindTree counts many multinational Fortune 500 companies among its customers now, including Unilever, Volvo, and AIG.