Where the Indian BPO industry has stalled hiring fresh talent knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) companies are in the hiring spree. Mainly two talent hubs Evalueserve and Copal Partners are on hiring mode.

Mass hiring in BPOs have taken a back seat with the global financial crisis, raising concern on losing prospective clients. However, KPOs are optimistic that the crisis will help them generate more deals from customers.

Joel Perlman, president and co-founder Copal Partners told Financial Chronicle that the company is at present hiring fresh talent and the financial crisis has no impact on the KPO industry. “At present, our headcount is 1,000 people and we are hiring. In the past six months we have hired 200 people. In the next one-year the headcount in India centre should be increased to 1,200 people,” Perlman said.

Evalueserve has also started hiring. The company had recently announced that in the next one year the headcount of the company would be increased to 3,000 professionals globally. At present the company’s global headcount is 2,400 people and the company would be adding 600 more people, of which majority would be in India.

An email sent across to Evalueserve went unanswered.

Copal Partners is an equity research and financial analytics firm. The company services blue chip companies including several global bulge bracket investment banks, hedge funds, private equity funds, consulting firms and Fortune 500 corporations. Evalueserve offers custom market research, business research, analytics, investment research, intellectual property and legal process services, marketing and sales support and knowledge technology services from its global research centres in Chile, China, India and Romania.

According to consultancy firm KPMG, KPO industry is projected to be worth anywhere between $10 billion and $17 billion by the year 2010.

The financial services sector will account for a major proportion of the KPO industry and its worth will be in excess of $5 billion by 2010.