Trinity Pumps $10M In Ephinay

A company that’s right in the middle of the hot-button political issue of outsourcing work overseas has landed some venture money to help it continue moving IT jobs to India and China.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Ephinay Corp., which helps companies cut costs by outsourcing finance-related jobs, announced in late November it has accepted a $10 million Series B infusion from Trinity Ventures.

Ephinay says the financing will help facilitate growth of its financial process outsourcing business. The investment from Trinity follows a $10 million investment earlier this year by ChrysCapital, a venture firm with offices in India and Palo Alto, Calif.

Ephinay – which is pronounced “F and A” – practices what it preaches. It employs 48 people in Phoenix, eight in Charlotte and 32 in India. It focuses exclusively on finance and accounting outsourcing, unlike various other call-center and IT programming services that India is best known for when U.S. companies outsource to that country.

Businessman Anshuman “Andy” Kankan started Ephinay a couple of years ago after helping GE Capital expand its Indian operations from 30 employees to more than 600.

The transfer of U.S. service-sector jobs overseas, especially to India, is on the rise as the lower wage levels overseas attract U.S. companies. The estimates of U.S. service-sector jobs lost to India in recent years have ranged from 100,000 to about 400,000.

India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies expects the number of “business processes” jobs in India to grow by 45% annually over the next five years, reaching nearly 1 million in 2008, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.