Knowledge Process Outsourcing, or KPO, is a term that is often contrasted with Business Process Outsourcing, or BPO, but is in fact much more varied in its offerings. 

While BPO companies typically provide large-scale, high-volume services such as customer support and data entry, KPO companies offer more judgement-intensive work such as equity research, credit ratings, legal document review, and actuarial analysis. India was not only an early participant in this trend, but one of its domestic companies even gave the industry its name.

This article provides a brief description of the top 10 KPO companies in India in terms of founding date, owners, headquarters, and areas of expertise.

Quick Comparison

Rank	Company	Founded	Owner / Founders	Headquarters	Core Focus
1	Evalueserve	December 2000	Marc Vollenweider & Alok Aggarwal (Co-founders)	Zug, Switzerland / Gurugram	Research, Analytics & Market Intelligence
2	CRISIL	1987	S&P Global (majority owner, ~66% stake)	Mumbai	Credit Ratings, Research & Risk Analytics
3	ICRA Limited	1991	Moody’s Corporation (majority owner)	Gurugram	Credit Ratings & Financial Research
4	Copal Amba (now Moody’s Analytics Knowledge Services)	2002 (as Copal Partners)	Moody’s Corporation (full owner since 2014)	Gurugram / London	Investment Research & Financial Analytics
5	Access Healthcare	2011	Founding team including Anurag Jain	Chennai / Dallas	Healthcare Revenue Cycle KPO
6	Pangea3	2004	Founded by David Perla & Sanjay Kamlani; now part of EY (acquired from Thomson Reuters in 2019)	New York / Mumbai	Legal Process Outsourcing
7	QuisLex	2013	Founder-led	Hyderabad	Legal Process Outsourcing
8	Ugam Solutions	2008	Founder-led; acquired by Merkle (Dentsu) in 2019	Mumbai	Retail & E-commerce Analytics
9	The Smart Cube	2003	Founder-led; part of Alpha-Diver group	London / India delivery	Market Intelligence & Research
10	Irevna	2001	Part of CRISIL and S&P Global Market Intelligence	Mumbai	Equity & Investment Research

1. Evalueserve – The Company that Coined the Term “KPO”

• Founded: December 2000 
• Owner: Co-founded by Marc Vollenweider (former McKinsey executive) and Alok Aggarwal (former IBM executive) 
• Headquarters: Zug, Switzerland (with largest office in Gurugram, India)

Evalueserve was founded in December 2000 by Marc Vollenweider, a former McKinsey executive, and Alok Aggarwal, his counterpart at IBM, who partnered to found a research and analytics company that would be initially funded by the two themselves. 

In 2003, Evalueserve introduced the term “Knowledge Process Outsourcing” to the industry, and has since positioned itself as a company that delivers “Mind+Machine” services, with India (and specifically Gurugram) as its primary delivery platform.

What Evalueserve does: Provides research, analytics, and business intelligence services powered by a combination of human expertise and technology.

Services offered: Market and competitive intelligence, investment research support, data analytics and visualisation, and intellectual property and patent research.

2. CRISIL – India’s First Credit Rating Agency

• Founded: 1987 (Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited) 
• Owner: S&P Global (majority owner with approx. 66% stake) 
• Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra

CRISIL was India’s first credit rating agency, established in 1987 by financial institutions including ICICI and UTI, with further support from SBI and LIC. 

In the years since, it has expanded its offerings to include research and risk analytics, and was acquired by S&P Global, which owns approximately 66% of the firm, giving it close ties to one of the largest financial information providers in the world.

What CRISIL does: Provides credit ratings, research, risk analytics, and related services to financial institutions and corporates.

Services offered: Corporate and bank ratings, economic research, risk and regulatory analytics, and global financial institution support.

3. ICRA Limited – Credit Rating and Research Company Owned by Moody’s

• Founded: 1991 
• Owner: Moody’s Corporation (majority owner) 
• Headquarters: Gurugram, Haryana

ICRA Limited is one of the largest credit rating agencies that was founded in India in 1991. This company has been acquired by one of the biggest credit rating and research companies called Moody’s Corporation. 

The main activity of ICRA is shareholding in one of the leading offshore knowledge management service providers that supports the research and ratings division of Moody’s. In addition, there is also an Indian business rating department.

What ICRA does: Provides credit ratings and research, as well as risk analytics to financial institutions.

Services offered: Corporate and structured finance ratings, economic research, offshore support to Moody’s, and risk management services.

4. Copal Amba (Moody’s Analytics Knowledge Services) – Investment Research and Analytics Services

• Founded: 2002 (as Copal Partners; merged with Amba Research to form Copal Amba) 
• Owner: Moody’s Corporation (full owner since 2014) 
• Headquarters: Gurugram, Haryana (with historical presence in London)

Copal Amba was formed by merging Copal Partners, which was founded in 2002, and Amba Research, which created one of the largest KPOs that provided investment research services to banks, asset managers, and corporations worldwide. 

First, Moody’s Corporation acquired a minority interest in the newly created firm, and then it bought the entire share in 2014, incorporating the purchased department under the umbrella of Moody’s Analytics Knowledge Services.

What Copal Amba does: Provides offshore investment research, financial analytics, and business intelligence services to financial institutions and corporates.

Services offered: Equity and credit research support, financial modelling and valuation, data extraction and financial spreading, and business and market research.

5. Access Healthcare – Specialised KPO for Healthcare Revenue Cycle

• Founded: 2011 
• Owner: Founding team includes Anurag Jain; Shaji Ravi conceptualised the company’s revenue cycle management focus. 
• Headquarters: Chennai, Tamil Nadu (with significant presence in the US state of Dallas)

Access Healthcare was founded in 2011 with a particular focus on revenue cycle management for the US healthcare industry. In other words, Access Healthcare’s main market was the management of medical billing and coding, which requires a particular understanding of this area as opposed to purely process-driven management. 

The company developed proprietary technology, including its arc.in platform, to perform medical billing and coding tasks that require human expertise and combined this technology with the experience of thousands of medical coders who work for the company in India, the US, and the Philippines.

What Access Healthcare does: Provides revenue cycle management and healthcare business process outsourcing services.

Services offered: Medical billing and coding, healthcare claims and denial management, robotic process automation for healthcare, and healthcare payer and provider support services.

6. Pangea3 – One of the First Legal Process Outsourcing Firms

• Founded: 2004 
• Owner: Founded by David Perla (former general counsel of Monster. com) and Sanjay Kamlani (former CFO of OfficeTiger); acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2010 and EY in 2019. 
• Headquarters: New York, USA (with delivery centres in Mumbai and Delhi, India)

Pangea3 was founded in 2004 by David Perla, former general counsel of Monster.com, and Sanjay Kamlani, former CFO of OfficeTiger. It was one of the first companies to outsource complex legal cases to India and provide them with specialized legal support. 

The concept of legal process outsourcing (LPO) was further developed, and Thomson Reuters acquired Pangea3 in 2010 and sold it to professional services firm EY in 2019, indicating a trend of consolidation even among the niche markets of KPOs.

What Pangea3 does: Provides legal process outsourcing and managed legal services to corporations and law firms.

Services offered: Contract lifecycle management, document review and legal research, intellectual property and patent support, and legal compliance and governance services.

7. QuisLex – Legal Process Outsourcing Company Based in Hyderabad

• Founded: 2004
• Owner: Founder-led 
• Headquarters: Hyderabad, Telangana

QuisLex was founded on the idea that even the most difficult legal work that involves a significant amount of judgment can be produced in a better, more scalable way through an improved, managed process, rather than traditional law firm approaches. 

It has turned the Hyderabad center into a legal industry power base, attracting large numbers of lawyers, data scientists, and technology experts, helping corporate law departments in the United States and elsewhere.

What QuisLex does: Provides legal process outsourcing and managed legal services to corporations.

Services offered: Managed document review, contract lifecycle management, mergers and acquisitions support, and legal spend management services.

8. Ugam Solutions – Analytics and Business Intelligence Company Specialising in Retail and E-commerce

• Founded: 2000
• Owner: Founder-led; acquired by Merkle (Dentsu Group) in 2019 
• Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Ugam is a retail and e-commerce data analytics company, established in 2008, that concentrated its efforts on studying such an information-intensive area as pricing, cataloging know-how, and consumer behavior in order to provide solutions beyond generic data analytics capabilities. 

In 2019, the firm was acquired by Merkle, a Dentsu Group company that specializes in advertising and marketing needs, allowing Ugam to integrate its expertise within the broader range of marketing technologies offered by the parent company.

What Ugam Solutions does: Provides data analytics and business intelligence services to retail and e-commerce firms.

Services offered: Competitive price monitoring, product content and cataloguing services, retail market research, and e-commerce analytics and reporting.

9. The Smart Cube – Market Intelligence and Research Services Company

• Founded: 2003 
• Owner: Founder-led; part of the Alpha-Diver group of companies. 
• Headquarters: London, UK (with India as a secondary delivery location)

The Smart Cube, which has been operating since 2003, was founded with the idea of providing research and market intelligence support to corporate and procurement departments of big international corporations, being competitive with such companies as Evalueserve and Copal Amba in the research KPO sphere. 

The company develops its Indian outsourcing division to ensure the best balance between low prices and high-quality research services.

What The Smart Cube does: Provides market intelligence, research, and analytics services to corporate buyers and sellers.

Services offered: Competitive and market intelligence, procurement and supplier risk analytics, category and pricing research, and AI-assisted insight generation.

10. Irevna – Equity Research Company Owned by CRISIL and S&P Global

• Founded: 2001 
• Owner: Part of CRISIL and S&P Global Market Intelligence 
• Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Irevna was founded in 2001 and initially focused on offshore equity and investment research, one of the first and most sensitive areas of knowledge process outsourcing that required in-depth financial expertise and a high level of security. 

The company was acquired by CRISIL and, as a consequence, S&P Global, and now it is part of a larger organization that provides financial research and analytical services worldwide.

What Irevna does: Provides offshore support for financial institutions in the form of equity research, financial modelling, and investment analytics.

Services offered: Equity research support and financial modelling, industry and company analysis, data extraction and financial spreading, and investment risk analytics.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Which company is credited with coining the term “Knowledge Process Outsourcing”?

Evalueserve, founded in December 2000 by Marc Vollenweider and Alok Aggarwal, is credited with coining the term “Knowledge Process Outsourcing” (KPO) in 2003. The term was used to describe the company’s research, analytics, and other knowledge-intensive services.

2. What is the difference between KPO and BPO?

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) generally focuses on high-volume, process-oriented activities such as customer support, data entry, and transaction processing. Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), in contrast, involves more specialized and judgment-intensive work, including research, financial analysis, legal services, market intelligence, and credit analysis.

3. Which is the oldest KPO-related company on this list?

CRISIL, founded in 1987 as India’s first credit rating agency, is the oldest company on this list. It was followed by ICRA Limited, which was established in 1991 and became another prominent player in India’s financial research and credit-rating ecosystem.

4. Which companies on this list are now owned by Moody’s Corporation?

ICRA Limited and Copal Amba are associated with Moody’s Corporation. Copal Amba became part of Moody’s and was subsequently integrated into what is now known as Moody’s Analytics Knowledge Services, providing research, analytics, and financial intelligence services.

5. Which companies on this list specialise specifically in legal process outsourcing?

Pangea3 and QuisLex are the two companies on this list that specialize in legal process outsourcing. They provide services such as legal research, document review, contract management, litigation support, and other technology-enabled legal services to global clients.

6. Which company focuses specifically on healthcare revenue cycle knowledge work?

Access Healthcare focuses specifically on healthcare revenue cycle management and related knowledge-intensive services. The company provides solutions covering areas such as medical billing, coding, claims processing, accounts receivable management, and other healthcare financial processes.

7. Which KPO company was acquired by a Japanese advertising conglomerate?

Ugam Solutions was acquired by Merkle in 2019. Merkle is part of Dentsu Group, a major Japanese advertising and marketing services organization. The acquisition strengthened Merkle’s capabilities in data analytics, consumer insights, and digital commerce.

8. What happened to Pangea3 after it was acquired by Thomson Reuters?

Pangea3 was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2010 and became part of its legal services business. In 2019, the business was acquired by EY, further expanding EY’s legal managed services and legal technology capabilities.

9. Which companies on this list are involved in equity and investment research specifically?

Irevna and Copal Amba are notable companies on this list associated with offshore equity and investment research. Their services have included financial modeling, investment research, market intelligence, company analysis, and other research services for financial institutions and investment firms.

10. Why has India become a global hub for knowledge process outsourcing specifically?

India has become a major global hub for KPO because of its large pool of highly educated and English-speaking professionals with expertise in areas such as finance, research, analytics, law, engineering, and healthcare. Competitive operating costs, established outsourcing infrastructure, and access to specialized talent have also helped Indian KPO companies serve clients across international markets.

Conclusion

India’s top KPO companies are home to a mix of firms that offer a broad range of services, as well as those that have carved out a niche for themselves in a particular domain. 

From Evalueserve’s role in coining the term “KPO” to CRISIL and ICRA Limited’s status as credit rating agencies, and Pangea3, QuisLex, Ugam Solutions, and Access Healthcare’s specialisation in particular areas of KPO, these ten companies are set to benefit from the trend of KPOs being used by multinational corporations seeking to take advantage of the expertise and lower costs on offer in India.