Indian software services exporter Wipro on Thursday announced it has signed an agreement to acquire US-based Appirio, a global cloud services company, for $500 million.

This is the second major acquisition for Wipro in the current year, having bought out Healthplan Services in February for $460 million.

“Once completed, Wipro’s acquisition of Appirio will create one of the world’s largest cloud transformation practices, a game changer in today’s software-as-a-service and digital economy,” the company said in a statement. Following the acquisition, Wipro will also have access to Topcoder, a crowdsourcing marketplace connecting over a million designers, developers and data scientists around the world with customers, it added. The company will consolidate its existing cloud applications practices of Salesforce and Workday under the Appirio brand and structure.

Appirio CEO Chris Barbin will lead the expanded business.Established in 2006, Appirio, which is headquartered in Indianapolis, has 1,250 employees worldwide, including in India. Key customers include Facebook, Coca-Cola, Sony PlayStation and eBay. The acquisition of this company gives Wipro a strong footing in the cloud services space. According to sources, Appirio posted a revenue of close to $200 million in CY15 and is a profit-making company. It is a privately held company, with key investors like Salesforce, Sequoia and General Atlantic.

“Appirio and Wipro are coming together to unlock transformational synergies in the applications space and help enterprises create new business models,” said Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala.

In a blogpost on the company website, Appirio CEO Chris Barbin said: “By combining our strengths, we’ll have a direct and realistic shot at returning to the number one market and mindshare position, and will immediately become the biggest of the TWITCH crew (TCS, Wipro, Infy, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant and HCL). Watch out Accenture and Deloitte — we’re coming,” Barbin said.