What happens when a big bang idea strikes right when you’re in the middle of analysing data for a project? Thiru Rengasamy invested `10 lakh and set up Tigma Technologies, which now has a revenue run rate of `3 crore and counting.
The year was 2010 and Rengasamy was a senior consultant for a data analytics vendor in the US. He was neck deep in the tech trench when it struck him that making sense of data could be a “complicated and inaccessible” process for many businesses.“While data held the key to unlocking endless possibilities, not everyone had the means to harness its full potential,” says Rengasamy. That got him thinking about how to make data analysis and business intelligence “more accessible and actionable for all types of organisations”.
Rengasamy shared his idea of “democratising data” with a few close colleagues and things quickly gained momentum. “I moved from the US to India and started Tigma in a month,” he says. “It was not just about starting a company; it was about creating a movement that would empower businesses everywhere.”
For the next ten years, the company grew organically, earning enough internal accruals to not need outside funding to expand. But Rengasamy saw this mid-tier data analytics company would need new muscle to offer a more diversified bouquet of services. For that he would need to bring in corporate experience and governance to turn the company into an on-shore-off-shore firm from a pure play off-shore one.
So, four years ago, he brought in Dr Srinivasan Vaidyanathan as CEO. “From the outset, I knew that if we were to turn Tigma Technologies into a game-changer, we needed someone with a deep understanding of how technology could drive business transformation,” says Rengasamy. With 30 years in the IT sector working for companies such as Cognizant and Cap Gemini, Dr Sri, as he is known, has an impeccable track record of transforming organisations with his strategic and operational vision. “His ability to see the big picture, coupled with his relentless drive to push boundaries made him the perfect partner for this ambitious journey,” says Rengasamy.
While Tigma’s founder is still its tech brain and funding spine, Vaidyanathan drives the next-big-leap growth strategy. “When Tigma first started it was a low-cost offshore model driven by cost arbitrage. But once I came on board, we moved towards people-on-site or on-shore-off-shore or near-shore model,” he says. “We want to go beyond data analytics and diversify towards digital transformation, legacy modernisation, software as a service and quality assurance as a service to name a few. I want to make Tigma an IT services and products consulting company,” says Vaidyanathan.
The services bouquet is one part of the growth. The other is geography. “We’re foraying into newer markets,” says Vaidyanathan. “So far we’re predominantly in the US with delivery base in India. But now we’re targeting Europe, Middle East, APAC and other countries as well,” he adds. In results terms, he is targeting a two to two and a half times increase in revenue from the current `3 crore in three years. In headcount terms that means taking the team from 100 right now to 200 to 250 in three years, he says.
Much of that growth will be driven by tech talent from Tamil Nadu’s tier 2 and 3 cities. “We recruit from cities such as Thanjavur, Trichy, Coimbatore and Pudukottai,” says Vaidyanathan. “We liaise with engineering colleges in those cities and offer interning opportunities too so we can source people from that pool,” he adds.
