On unexplored domain

What prompted you to start EKA? How did your experience at G Premjee Trading help you launch this venture?

I began my career at Bluestar where I became interested in international trade. Thereafter, I did my masters from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi, and wanted to work in the international trade arena at GP. Managing the coffee desk at GP, I handled the responsibility of accounts like Nestle Worldwide, P&G USA, Lavazza and Kraft Jacob Suchard.

This gave me exposure to the coffee markets of Italy, Korea, Japan, Germany, Vietnam and USA. I helped GP initiate key risk management practices for hedging green coffee in New York Board of Trade and London International Financial and Futures Exchange. However, seeing most trading houses using out-dated technology or large spreadsheets which were cumbersome and prone to errors that would generate untraceable losses; I felt there was a lack of a comprehensive commodity trading solution that met clients��� requirements.

Suppliers and buyers either worked with outdated systems that did not represent their business, or invested heavily on home-grown systems that had not produced desired results. Moreover, the systems were poorly integrated across the company. This prompted me to work towards creating a tool that would help traders, buyers and sellers of commodities to manage their global position, risk and operations . This is how Eka Software germinated.

What were the challenges you faced?

Some of the initial hurdles were raising capital, attracting clients, trying to sell our product in the global market. Our focus on customer woes, creating winning relationships, and perseverance helped us overcome these hurdles. We undertook in-depth analysis before building the initial prototype of the product.

What are the opportunities for budding entrepreneurs?

As the commodities operations in India scale, we will look for opportunities arising in information services, risk consulting, training in futures/derivatives and automation of processes.

An infant market comes with unexplored territory but the risks are high. Comment.


Every new exploration towards an unknown territory starts with a dream. Dream of finding new challenges, creating new things and leaving a legacy behind. It is the belief in the dream that allows you to endure difficult circumstances and emerge a winner.

What skills would you ask budding entrepreneurs to have?


Understanding the domain is important in commodities. Best bet for an entrepreneur would be to work in this area with trading companies or export operations so that they can understand the customer concerns. From IT perspective skills, financial technologies would help.

Comment on growth prospects in the sector.


Professionals who are trained on products/technologies that exist in this sector will fetch a premium . This industry has started to open up in India and growth potential is immense. A software professional who can understand the domain faster has an edge.

EKA is present in Europe, US and Middle East. How different is the global experience?


When we analysed the competitive landscape, we realised that although there were companies in the business, most of them were small and regional, and none with the kind of ���vision��� we had. Most larger players focused only on the energy segment as agriculture and metals market required considerable capabilities for physical handling of the cargo. We discovered that their technologies were outdated. For instance, there were no web-based systems. We harnessed the latest technologies and came out with a fully J2EE-based architecture.

Comment on startups providing good opportunities.


Most start-ups provide excellent opportunities for employees to learn and adapt to skills for which they may not have the right qualifications but have the right aptitude. As organisations grow, there are newer roles created. At times instead of looking outside for expertise, it is better to identify potential candidates within the company to grow into the newer responsibilities. This way there���s an immense value add to the employee���s career.