Soota launches 'Happiest Minds Tech'

Happiest Minds would offer six lines of services, namely IT services, R&D services, product engineering services, remote infrastructure management, testing and consulting.

Interestingly, it is led by a vision to accelerate growth and become the fastest IT services company from India to reach $100 Million in revenue.

In response to a question, he said, while MindTree crossed the $100 Million revenue milestone in six full years, he hoped Happiest Minds to do so in five.

“Happiest Minds will focus on emerging technologies like cloud, social CRM, unified communications, mobility, business intelligence and analytics," he said. It would target non-linear growth by creating prototypes around workflows in the new technologies and offer domain consultancy.

VC funding

Soota said he was talking to two venture capital funds  to raise money and promised to make an interim announcement on  the quantum of funding in a few weeks. The company would go for an IPO at some stage, he added.

Emphasising that there was no no-compete clause with MindTree, Soota hinted that the Happiest Minds would compete against other companies, including Mindtree, for customers and talent. Soota reportedly owns 11.1 per cent of the MindTree stocks valued at Rs 1,600 crore, which would be partially divested at an appropriate time, he added.

While Soota would be Chairman and Managing Director, a new CEO and other senior executives are expected to be announced in the coming months.

Asked about the obvious overlaps between MindTree and Happiest Minds — from name to business focus — Soota said he wanted to avoid excessive comparisons and move away from the past.

He said he had been toying with the idea of forming a new company for the last six months. ‘Personal reasons’ and ‘destiny’ were behind his exit from MindTree, he claimed.