Many Indian VCs have sweated to make their portfolios work and bring returns on investment (RoI) to investors. Some have been successful in this, and some have not. Among those successful, there had been a few ‘interesting’ VCs who, after investing in a company, went on board.

That’s what Sudhir Sethi did. Today he is President and Executive Director on the board of Infotech Enterprises Limited, a $41 million, 2000 people, listed global software services firm based out of Hyderabad. Infotech Enterprises is a leader in engineering design services, geographical information systems focused on the manufacturing industry, utilities and Telco.

Before joining Infotech Enterprises, Sethi managed the India operations of Walden International, USA—a global technology focused Venture Capital Fund—for 4 years. He served on the Boards of MindTree Consulting, Venture Infotech, Infotech Enterprises and Webdunia in India as well as Webvision and Jobstreet in Singapore.

Sethi was with Wipro Infotech, HCL and DCM Data Systems prior to starting up Walden operations in India. His 23 years of industry experience spans venture investing, corporate strategy, marketing, manufacturing and R&D in the Software service and IT industry in India and worldwide.

He reasons out that since a VC has a critical eye and ‘out-of-box’ thinking, value add at both board level and operation is immense. Sethi, in the four years as a VC, had studied over 1000 business plans of different technology startups in India, USA and Singapore. “That was a funding exercise for us. As part of my job as VC, I had to look minutely and critically at the business models of companies looking for funding.” “The in-depth study of business models, revenue models and operations was and continues to be an unparalleled learning experience” said Sethi.

Here are excerpts of the interview with Sethi.

How do you see the role-shift from a VC to Infotech Enterprises? Has the transition been smooth or tough?

The transition from a VC to Infotech was smooth. I was fairly active during my Walden days in assisting Infotech at the board level and in areas like recruitment, etc. What I had to juggle were the operational details.

The two roles are completely different. As a VC, my responsibility was towards my investors, besides ensuring RoI. A VC relies on good management to deliver results. As an operations person now, I am answerable to the customers, employees, the board and share holders/investors.

Sitting on the other end of the table, how do you see the VCs functioning today?

I am today on the advisory board of Westbridge Capital and actively involved on the Investment committee of UTI Ventures. What I see is a more cautious approach among the VCs and more due diligence. I see a lot more operations people donning the role of VCs in India – Samir Kumar leads Acer Vetures, Abhay Hawaldar with GAP and Sanjay with Jumpstartup amongst many others.

I also find that a lot more expansion funding is taking place in India now than startups.

What notable changes you have brought in since you joined Infotech? Has there been a conscious change in the business strategy after you joined?

As President and Executive Director on the Board of Infotech Enterprises, my prime responsibilities are Global Sales and Marketing, M&A and Corporate Strategy. During the past 2 years, we have taken a number of initiatives critical to leading Infotech to a $ 100 million revenue goal by 2005-2006. We launched a major branding exercise leading to a new look for Infotech and a host of service offerings. We have invested in building a direct sales model more than ever worldwide. Integrating the subsidiaries, which were acquired, has been challenging task involving a change in business model. We closed one of the largest deals for offshoring of engineering services with Bombardier Transportation to grow to 400 people in 4 years. We completed an acquisition of VARGIS, a GIS company in the US in January 2004. This has given us direct access into the US market space. Our new business grew last year by 54%.

What has worked and what has not worked since you took the charge?

We have a great team here. A lot has worked in terms of new business development, acquisition etc. We have faced stiff challenges on costs and profitability. This is key focus for us in FY 2004-05.


What’s your general perception about the overall rating of Indian software industry?

The India software industry is truly world class. The next 5 years will see us as more globally competitive, more multicultural, more near shoring along with off shoring, building specializations in verticals and horizontals. However, a key element of growth in the next 2 years is truly M&A while scaled organic growth is sustained. From operations customers are demanding higher value add and productivity/efficiency.