PUNE: It’s been less than a month since he retired as the vice-chairman of Zensar TechnologiesBSE -0.77 %, and Ganesh Natarajan admits that his first few days post retirement were busier than his time at the RPG group IT firm. Sitting in his office at Global Talent Track (GTT), a company that he’s the chairman of, Natarajan said that he has an ever-growing list of things he wants to do. The key focus will be 5F World, a ‘meta-startup platform’ set up in partnership with his wife, Uma Ganesh, also CEO, GTT. “About 70% of my time will be spent at 5F World, 10% at GTT and the rest on social initiatives like the Nasscom Foundation and Pune City Connect,” said Natarajan.
The first thing on his agenda is setting up Skills Alpha, a company that will use technology to provide technical and softskills training. “We are working with four companies on this for the beta version, which will be ready in about four months. We will use technology to design a path and help you acquire skills, monitor you and maybe provide coaching and mentoring. We are investing about Rs 3 crore into this,” he told ET. The other area of focus for 5F World is investing in early-stage startups and collaboratively setting up startup incubators or accelerators.
“We will invest between Rs 25-30 lakh in seven-eight companies this year who are working either in the skills or communities area, or in technologies like augmented reality, big data or analytics,” said Natarajan. The investments would be in the range of Rs 25-30 lakh and he has earmarked about Rs 4 crore for the planned startup investments. Natarajan is clear that the companies he invests in should have a feasible roadmap to reach revenues of Rs 100 crore, and an EBITDA of Rs 15 crore by March 2020.
Covered By :The Economic Times :
