IT heavyweight Ashok Soota's masterplan: Reshaping Happiest Minds for an AI-powered billion-dollar future

Promoting and setting up his second technology venture, Happiest Minds, in 2011, IT industry stalwart Ashok Soota, who currently holds 32.2% individually in the company and collectively under the promoter category holds nearly 44.2%, is now preparing his company for all contingencies. In its quest to become a billion-dollar revenue company by FY31, Happiest Minds has brought changes to its core organisational structure—from roles and functions to carving out a separate Generative AI business unit and calling out its revenue.

Succession planning

Earlier in March this year, the 14-year-old company announced changes to its organisational structure. Joseph Anantharaju, who was Executive Vice Chairman, President & CEO of the Product and Digital Engineering Services (PDES) division, was elevated as the Co-Chairman and CEO, while Ashok Soota became Chairman and Chief Mentor. The company, which initially had a flattish structure with multiple CEOs for its business lines, has now consolidated under one CEO.

Joseph is now responsible for the overall revenues of PDES, Infrastructure Management & Security Services (IMSS), Generative AI Business Services (GBS), Analytics CoE, and People Practice. Meanwhile, Venkatraman Narayanan, as MD & CFO, oversees Finance, Talent Acquisition, and other functions such as Learning & Development, ESG, CSR, Procurement, and Administration within the organisation.

The 80-plus-year-old Soota said that while there was no change in the fundamental thought process, "If I had to hand over the business, I can't hand it over as a CEO to a group of four people."

The organisational overhaul is not complete yet. The company will be making changes at its executive board level. In FY26, it plans to induct younger leaders who will have at least a 10-year runway with the organisation. “We also need to integrate the organisations from the two companies we acquired earlier this year. Over the last few days, I have been talking to leaders from Happiest Minds, PureSoftware, and Aureus to understand their aspirations and forge an integrated organisational structure,” Anantharaju said. The changes are expected to be announced in the first quarter of FY26.

Happiest Minds acquired Noida-headquartered PureSoftware Technologies for $94.5 million in April last year, while in May, it picked up a 100% stake in US-based digital product engineering company Aureus Tech Systems for $8.5 million in an all-cash deal. The full revenue impact of these acquisitions started reflecting on the company's books in Q2 FY25 and has been a key growth driver.

Future growth vectors

At the beginning of FY24-25, Happiest Minds restructured its business by consolidating Product Engineering Services (PES) and Digital Business Services under a new unit, PDES, while also calling out its Generative AI revenues separately under an independent unit, Generative AI Business Services (GBS). The company also brought in former Tech Mahindra executive Maninder Singh as its Chief Growth Officer.

By the end of Q3 FY25, PDES contributed nearly 80% of the company's revenues, while GBS accounted for 1.5%. Listed on the stock exchanges in September 2020, Happiest Minds closed FY21 with $104 million in revenue. In FY24, the company posted a 10.23% year-on-year growth, reaching $196 million. In the first nine months of FY25, Happiest Minds garnered $180.6 million.

Acknowledging that double-digit growth in FY25 was driven by acquisitions despite a challenging year marked by flat growth and a US slowdown, Soota emphasised, "We want to state emphatically that at Happiest Minds, we see no recession-driven slowdown. Thanks to our 10 transformational changes and our dedicated teams, including those from PureSoftware and Aureus, we see a good outlook for the next two years."

To broaden its revenue base, the company plans to enhance its penetration into the PE channel by selling to PE firms that are major shareholders in some of its customers. “The first step would be leveraging our existing customers and the good work we are doing to secure introductions to the PE firms that own these customers. We will follow that up with a curated list of firms where we have connections or a compelling value proposition,” Anantharaju said.

The company is also focusing on India’s booming Global Capability Centers (GCC) landscape, offering strategy and entry assistance either directly or through Happiest Minds. For existing GCCs, it is providing solutions in Generative AI, automation, technology modernisation, and data.

Even after acquiring two companies in 2024, Happiest Minds plans to continue its M&A strategy to reach its billion-dollar goal. While organic growth remains a priority, "We are starting the new year with a good pipeline of potential M&A prospects," said Narayanan.

Interestingly, as part of its future growth strategy, the company is betting on Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS). The product and solution are expected to be integrated into its business by the end of FY26. Even with significant capital expenditure planned for the initiative, “Let me assure you that even in the first full year, the business will run on a cash-positive basis,” Soota added.