Fractal Analytics, which received a Rs 150-crore private equity investment from TA Associates, will double its employee strength to 1,200 in the next year as it expands its presence in India, Europe and Latin America.
The company’s Mumbai office has 450 employees, while in Delhi there are about 50 and in the US and a few other countries there are about 100. “We are going to double the workforce in Mumbai and Delhi. The number of staff outside India too would double,” Srikanth Velamakanni, Group Chief Executive Officer of Fractal Analytics, told Business Line.
The company registered a turnover of Rs 120 crore in 2012-13 and is looking at Rs 210 crore this year. “We are looking at going for an IPO in three years, when we expect to reach a turnover of Rs 600 crore. PE players, however, are not in a hurry for an exit soon,” Velamakanni said.
Hiring for big analytics companies could be more different from hiring for a normal IT company. “You need a mathematician, a statistician, social scientist and even one from the psychology field,” he said.
“Talent in this segment is quite scarce. We had hired 200 people last year. For that, we had to vet 10,000 resumes. And we are going to vet 25,000 resumes as we finalise the plans for hiring 600 this year,” he said.
CUSTOMER GENOMICS
Srikanth said computers are better placed to understand the behaviour of customers. “By just seeing you, I will make some internal assessments on what kind of phone you use and what is the operating system you are using,” he said.
By knowing customer preferences, computers can predict your buying behaviour. “We have built an engine called Customer Genomics to help corporates understand the behaviour of their customers without having to talk to them. It understands behaviour of consumers and products (how they are being received.)