Known for his business acumen, gentle manners and an unflappable style of functioning, Reddi has so far made 10 investments in the US.
After selling AppLabs, an independent software testing company with 2,500 professionals, to Computer Sciences Corporation in September 2011 for Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion), giving 10 times return on investments to Series-A investors such as Westbridge and Sequoia Capital India, Sashi Reddi returned to his original passion - investing in start-ups.
A serial entrepreneur, Reddi had started three other companies prior to AppLabs: web content management firm EZPower Systems, which was acquired by DocuCorp and eventually became a part of Oracle; group purchasing dotcom iCoop; and game developing company FXLabs, which was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment.
In Edutor and GIBSS, SRI Capital was the first institutional investor and Reddi is on the board of the two companies. Both firms have successfully raised a Series-A round within two years of SRI's investment.
"In the US, I focus on enterprise SaaS (software as a service) opportunities since the consumer story has now played out with a lot of very well-funded start-ups in every large category. There is a shortage of capital in the enterprise tech space so it is where I can play a role."
Known for his business acumen, gentle manners and an unflappable style of functioning, Reddi has so far made 10 investments in the US in his personal capacity, while his SRI Capital has made an equal number of investments in India, which translates into one new investment per quarter.
The latest investment of SRI Capital is Hyderabad-based NumberMall, which started out as a phone recharge business but is now evolving to using that customer data to provide hyperlocal offers to customers from nearby merchants.
SRI had invested Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) in this start-up in January 2015, and Reddi joined the board of NumberMall.
Except for some minor exits such as KonciergeMD, which was acquired by Accolade (both Philadelphia-based healthcare companies), and Shopo (co-invested with Sequoia India), an Indian designer and handcrafted products marketplace, which was acquired by Snapdeal in 2013.
"The average age of my investments are only two years with only a few being three years. The expectation is that in the next 12 months, we should see two to three exits in the portfolio. In the normal course, barring some exceptions, successful start-ups will move on to raise more funding and grow - just as we saw with Edutor and GIBSS. I am expecting another two-three of my start-ups to raise the next round of funding, like Hello Curry and NumberMall. Most start-ups that exit would be those where there is little upside for investors. Only in a few exceptions will an exit be due to the phenomenal success of a start-up," says Reddi.
FACT BOX
Professional graph: Serial entrepreneur; founded four companies EZPower Systems, iCoop, FXLabs, and AppLabs
Investment interests: Floated SRI Capital in 2012 and has so far invested in 20 start-ups both in his personal capacity and through SRI Capital
Major investments: Rs 3 crore in quick service restaurant chain Hello Curry in March 2014, Rs 16 crore in Internet TV provider YuppTV for 10% stake in April 2014, and Rs 5 crore in NumberMall for minority stake in January 2015
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