Happiest Minds Tech eyes public listing in about 7 yrs: Ashok Soota

SINGAPORE: Bangalore-based Happiest Minds Technologies Pvt Ltd will be publicly listed in about seven years once it achieves annual turnover of over $100 million, its founder and executive chairman Ashok Soota said here today.

"We will take the company public in about seven years, plus or minus a year," said Soota, who has already garnered an investment of $45 million from US-based venture capital funds for the one-year old IT services company.

"We expect to build the business into over $100 million a year turnover group in about six years," said the 70-year old IT veteran.

Soota said he has chalked out a major expansion for Happiest Minds. The company's next office will be set up in Australia, followed by one in Canada, he added.

The company is already serving more than 30 international clients and was making Singapore its regional headquarters, Soota said.

Soota said he has built a base of 600 employees and 12 offices for Happiest Minds in the past one year. Eight of these offices are in the United States, one each in Bangalore, New Delhi and London as well as the Singapore regional operations.

Soota said he expected to make a second round of funding call close to going public in 2018-2019. The company has already secured a USD 45 million Series A funding from Canaan Partners and Intel Capital of the United States.

The IT veteran said Happiest Minds would stay focussed on providing integrated solutions, services & IPs involving disruptive technologies like Mobility, Cloud Computing, Social Media, Analytics, Business Intelligence and Unified Communications to global corporations.

He underlined the Happiest Minds mission of "Happiest People, Happiest Customers", saying Happiest Minds sees itself as a happiness evangelist for its people and its customers.

Happiest Minds was launched in August, 2011 by Ashok Soota and a team of industry experts.