Web18’s chief technology officer Varun Singh has confirmed what we reported last week. “I have put in my papers at Web18 and i’m leaving to start my own company,” Singh said.

Singh, 27, has set up ScalArc Inc., a Delaware, US-incorporated consulting firm that will help web companies optimize infrastructure costs through open source solutions. The name is short for scalable architecture.

Singh seems to have tied up some kind of venture funding. “We are expecting our first round of funding to close soon,” Singh said, declining to give further details citing confidentiality reasons. The company will primarily target the US and India market, with offices in San Francisco and Mumbai, “but we have the ability to deliver our services remotely anywhere in the world,” Singh said.

Singh hopes to tap into the ongoing economic slowdown and companies’ need to cut costs wherever possible. “Some 30-35% of costs for a large web operation is in licensing costs for software. We can help them eliminate that by deploying open source software,” Singh said. As for the timing, he says: “there is no better time to start an open-source solutions company than now. Everybody wants to prune costs.” The company, Singh said, has extensive pricing information on vendors of data centres and other infrastructure that it can use in advising clients.

Singh joined TV18 as executive editor, technology, in January 2006. He moved to Web18 when it was set up as a separate entity and was designated chief technology officer in June 2007. Since then, and this is the reason we are covering Singh’s move closely, he has been instrumental in setting up the impressive portfolio of destination websites Web18 today has, such as ibnlive.com, cricketnext.com, bookmyshow.com, yatra.com, tech2.com, jobstreet.com, indiwo.com, buzz18.com and the jewel in the crown, the aggregator In.com. He led the acquisition of design firm Urban Eye, giving Web18 properties a design edge, relatively superior user interface and navigational ease. Network18 has been able to hive off Web18 and create enough value to file for a Nasdaq listing in two years, and Singh seems to have played no small role in it. “My firm will be a consultant for Web18, so i’m not entirely going away in that sense,” Singh said.