Silver Lake plays lead investor in Eka Soft’s 250 crore funding round

BANGALORE: Global private equity fund Silver Lake has made its first investment in India by backing Eka Software Solutions, a Bangalore-based company that builds software for commodity trading. Silver Lake is the lead investor in the Rs 250 crore funding round, that will come from its growth capital fund, Silver Lake Kraftwerk. “This is a strategic investment in the global commodity market where technology is playing an increasingly critical role,” said Bryce Lee, a managing director at Silver Lake Kraftwerk , who has now joined the board of Eka Software.

The US-based technology buyout fund which manages assets of around $ 20 billion ( Rs 1.2 lakh crore), recently acquired computer maker Dell Inc along with Michael Dell. The investment in Eka Software, now gives the fund a significant minority stake in the Indian company that has also received investment from Nexus Venture Partners. Eka, was set up in 2004 by Manav Garg, 39, a former commodity trader, who expects his company to cross revenues of Rs 200 crore in fiscal 2014. While Garg declined to share profit details , analysts said enterprise software companies typically have profit margins of about 25% and can command valuation of around 14 times profit. This would give Eka Software an estimated value of around Rs 700 crore in this latest transaction . “Eka has been able to demonstrate the strength of its business model and consolidate smaller players globally. Very few Indian product companies have been able to do that,” said Aashish Bhinde, executive director at financial advisory firm Avendus Capital.