No slowdown for Maveric Systems which is looking to hire 210 engineers by January and has $30 million for acquisition

• The Chennai-based banking solutions provider has doubled its revenue in the last 3 years.
  
  
• Its flagship product is a lot like Infosys’ Finacle, but Maveric is a much smaller company offering fewer services.
  
  
• The company is looking to double its revenue and employee in next 3 years, founder Ranga Reddy told Business Insider.
  

A rare bright spot in India’s struggling economy is a little known banking technology solutions provider, Maveric Systems. It is all set to hire 900 engineers in Chennai and Bengaluru over the next three years-- 210 of those appointments will take place before January.

Maveric has been around for nearly two decades but the growth rate moved to a higher orbit in 2015 when it added new services to the portfolio leading to impressive growth.

It started with application assurance but the addition new digital services -- like customer acquisition, servicing a bank’s website, app, and ATM interface-- has improved the pace of growth. “Not just building the interface but providing analytics, product distribution, customer onboarding and customer service,” founder Ranga Reddy told Business Insider.

The revenue has doubled in the last three years-- a compounded annual growth rate of 30%--- and the founder is gunning for twice as much in the next three years. The annual revenue at the end of March 2019 was ₹330 crore or $47 billion and the target is $100 million in the next three years.

The focus is not just the topline, but profitability too. “While moving from 13% EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) to 16.5% EBITDA last financial year. We want to improve EBITDA to over 20% in the next 3 years,” he said.

For that, the company will need people. “Primary growth will be in data and digital technologies. Typically, we will bet on any talent that is maverick in nature. We need about 5 to 10 leadership roles and we are scouting for people in the Middle East, APAC (Asia-Pacific) and Singapore with understanding in both banking and technology,” explained Reddy who was consultant for 16 years before he began Maveric.

‘Can’t be a billion dollar company and don’t want to be’

At a time when headline valuation of even loss-making startups is breaking billions, here is a business owner who is not looking to encash stake either through funding or an IPO. “I have grown through sweat, not equity,” Reddy quipped when probed on the issue. Unlike many of the startups, this company broke even in just three years.

He has enough cash, and is now looking to acquire companies. “We are chasing to acquire companies to expand our capabilities, both in data and product space. Companies that can convert monolithic applications into micro solutions. The focus is primarily based on customer reach and competency. We can pay up to $30 million,” Reddy said adding that he would prefer firms that have a reach in Europe.

Maveric already has an international presence-- in Singapore, London, Dubai, Mexico City, and Bahrain-- but it wants to expand further. It boasts of some of the top banks in the Middle East like Samba, Al Rajhi , Bank Al Bilad, Saudi Hollandi and many others are among its clientele.

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