TechCelX to offer innovation services

MUMBAI: Former HCL Tech CEO Anant Gupta plans to offer his coinnovation model to global companies and will start hiring a slew of executives from Indian IT companies as he builds his new company. Last week, the Noida-headquartered company announced that Gupta had resigned and that its chief operating officer C Vijaykumar would be taking over the helm. Gupta said he would be starting TechCelX – which will work with companies to help them innovate and also invest Rs 100 crore in startups.

With enterprises, Gupta said, the idea was to create a group of 25-30 people – from software architects to designers – to work with each client to create innovative intellectual property.

“We will work with them from the start. Companies have problems with innovation because executives are tasked with growth, and operations and innovation and sometimes the innovation part does not get as much focus,” Gupta told ET in his first interview since stepping down as CEO.

When asked if that meant he would begin luring away talent from IT companies, including HCL Tech, Gupta demurred. “The idea is that this would only need about 30 people per engagement. I will not be hiring in the thousands. We have just started the process, some discussions are on. We think this will be ready to launch in the New Year,” he said.