Angel investor Sashi Reddi bullish on analytics

Hyderabad: City-based serial entrepreneur Sashi Reddi, who reportedly made a killing by selling his software testing firm AppLabs to the US-based Computer Science Corporation (CSC) for about Rs 1,200 crore two years ago, has now turned angel investor to encourage budding entrepreneurs realize their dreams.

The technocrat, who shuttles between the city and the US frequently, set up Rs 100-crore venture fund with focus on technology, media, internet, cloud computing and other interesting areas. A product of IIT-Delhi, he is now extremely bullish on software analytics segment. “I have already invested Rs 50 crore in 15 companies.

Nearly half of them are in India while the remaining firms are located in the US,” Reddi, who set up Sri Capital in the city for this purpose, told The Hans India. On an average, he invests anywhere between Rs 1 crore to 5 crore in each firm. “Unlike most of other angle investors, I tend to invest more because I prefer to have bigger stake in the companies,” he said.

Some of the companies that received investments from him include the city-based Edutor Technologies which focuses on education. “I also invested in a San Francisco-based chip company which makes chips in Hyderabad,” he said. At present, he is eyeing right opportunities in analytics, enterprise SaaS and mobility.

“For outside investors like me it’s good time to invest in India. In the past, valuations were very high. They have come down now,” he maintained. Reddi is hopeful of clinching some more deals in India soon. Moreover, he is not averse to increasing the fund size if required. “I will definitely invest more if right options are available,” he stated.

However, he is not keen to turn full-time angle investor and pool in funds from others. “I will only invest my money though I have not decided yet how much more money I will earmark. There are lots of good opportunities right now,” he added. On the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, he maintained that there would not be any adverse impact on the IT sector in the city post division. “In my opinion, it makes no difference.

I don’t know why people are making so much fuss about the division. From the opportunities standpoint, there will be no change,” he observed. He however stated that sectors like real estate might get impacted. “But for people like me who are focusing on technology and business, there will not be any change whatsoever if the state is divided,” he said.

Sashi Reddi, who did his doctorate from the Wharton School, began his entrepreneurial journey in 1994 by founding EZPower Systems, a developer of website building applications. It was acquired by DocuCorp in 1998 and later by Oracle. His second venture was iCoop, a group purchasing website set up in 1999. Subsequently, he founded AppLabs in 2001 and FXLabs in 2004. Foundation 9 Entertainment acquired FXLabs.