MUMBAI: Dallas headquartered IT services company Accolite has announced the appointment of HCL Co-founder and ex-CEO of Headstrong, Arjun Malhotra as Chairman to its Advisory Board.
Chief Executive Officer of Accolite, Leela Kaza said that Malhotra has been roped in to help scale up the companyâs operations and transform into a $ 500 million enterprise. Founded in 2007, Accolite is a bootstrapped IT services firm and specialises in the BFSI services space. The companyâs other verticals include healthcare, telecommunication, logistics and it also provides product engineering solutions.
âBFSI continues to be our corner stone of growth and our aspiration is to generate $ 100 million in annual revenue in the vertical by 2023. Malhotraâs rich expertise, strategic insights and network across the board will immensely benefit Accolite, not only in terms of scaling up but also in attracting top notch talent which is critical to our future vision,â said Kaza.
Accolite currently generates about $ 23 million in revenue from its BFSI vertical. Kaza said that the companyâs overall revenue stands a little over $ 60 million in the current financial year at a CAGR of 25%.
The company has not diluted stake since its origin and plans to create a $ 100 million revenue base in all verticals. âThe vision is to create a billion dollars in value for our clients in the next three to five years. Since we have never diluted (stake) nor have we had a board, we have taken a lot of time to think about who will help us in this transformation from a sub $ 100 million company to the next milestone of $ 300-500 million,â according to Kaza.
On his appointment to the board, Arjun Malhotra said, âThey (Accolite) have done a very interesting job till now, they have marquee customers and have built a good organisation. My objective is how I can create more jobs in India, so I thought here is an opportunity to help a company that is at a somewhat unique (stage) to grow to that size and to meet my own objectives.â
In 1975 Malhotra had co-founded and grew the HCL group from a six-person âgarage operationâ to one of Indiaâs largest IT corporations. He later served as the Chairman and CEO of financial services firm Headstrong before its acquisition by Genpact in 2011. Prior to Headstrong he was CEO and Chairman of TechSpan, which merged with Headstrong in 2003.
Malhotra said that the rapidly changing technology infrastructure in the BFSI space is creating a lot of opportunities for the growth of technology firms like Accolite. The company is able to differentiate itself from large scale IT providers, he added.
âA lot of the banks are working on mainframe and some technology from earlier eras. You have to adapt them to todayâs worldâ¦.The technology needs to be scalable, you have to have microarchitecture. Most companies are scrambling to do it, they are training their people. Accolite is in a good place because the installed base is not too large. Its very much like how India got ahead in the mobile telephony revolution because it didnât have a whole installed base of landlines and we didnât have to worry about that investment going sour very quickly. I think Accolite is in that position right now.â
The company employs 1300 people across India and the US.