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Mr Shashi Reddi, who holds a Ph.D in economics from Wharton, is a serial entrepreneur. The 46-year-old Mr Reddi started four firms, made a killing in two, lost money on one and came out unhurt from another.
The sale of AppLabs, the testing tools firm with 2,500 employees, to CSC late last year got him a fortune. Both the firms kept mum on the deal size, sticking to the non-disclosure pact. But the street had put it at Rs 1,200 crore.
Apart from Mr Reddi, Sequoia Capital too invested early in that firm and made good money. After his four entrepreneurial ventures, Mr Reddi believes that all new ventures should have an outside investor to instil discipline, financial and otherwise.
Investing in start-ups
He knows it better after learning a few lessons from his experiences. Instead of investing his monies in new ventures of his own, he decides to make seed investments in start-ups and started SRI Capital, setting apart Rs 100 crore.
“I am looking at investments of Rs 1-2 crore that could fetch me 5-10 per cent in the equity. I have invested in nine such firms by putting in Rs 10 crore,” Mr Reddi told Business Line on the sidelines of the Nasscom Leadership Forum here.
However, he is not going to put all the money into new ventures. “At least some of them might require additional funding in the second round to fund their growth plans,” he said.
The list of start-ups he has invested in includes e-commerce site shopo, edutor and gibss, a green energy initiative. The last firm provides geo-thermal solutions to the new campus of ISB (Indian School of Business) at Mohali.
Tech incubator
“I am planning to invest in one firm each a quarter in India and two year in the US,” Mr Reddi said. As he moves back to Hyderabad from the US, he converted a Jubilee Hills property, where he started AppLabs, into a technology incubator with 200 seats.
“It is a plug-and-play facility. Start-ups with not more than 15 seats can rent space on per-seat basis. They can also rent conference rooms whenever they need them. Four firms have already moved in,” Mr Reddi said.
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