AI and analytics solutions provider Fractal mulls IPO as COVID-19 accelerates growth: Report

IPO (PC-Shutterstock)

India's artificial intelligence and analytics solutions firm Fractal Analytic Inc is mulling an initial public offering, with an aim to fuel its growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Bloomberg.

Apart from exploring an option of IPO, the AI and analytics solutions provider is assessing interest from investors valuing the company at significantly more than $1 billion, the business website quoted Fractal Analytic co-founder Srikanth Velamakanni as saying. He even added that his firm has till now received $325 million in funding so far from investors which also includes Apax Partners.

ALSO READ: Tatva Chintan Pharma Chem IPO to open on July 16; price band set at Rs 1,073-1,083

“The floodgates have opened. We have the scale to be a public company," Srikanth Velamakanni said. Fractal predicts its revenue will increase 37% to $160 million in the fiscal year ending March 2022. Citing the reason for this, Fractal says that COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a push by firms to move their functions to the cloud -- a boon for analytics providers -- such as Fractal as they make processes more efficient.

Fractal's customers include Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc and Wells Fargo & Co. The Indian firm has its main offices in Mumbai and New York and 2,400 employees in 16 locations across the globe, which includes India, the US, UK, Ukraine and Australia. Velamakanni said Fractal is planning to add 1,500 workers this year, mainly in India.

According to a recent report by consultancy McKinsey & Co., over a thousand software-as-a-service providers in India and the industry is set to increase its annual revenue to $70 billion by 2030 from about $3 billion now. The report further adds that national contenders will control about 6 percent of the global SaaS market estimated to be worth $1.3 trillion by the end of the decade.

Considering the IPO option, if it succeeds as per plan, Fractal's revenue in FY 2021-22 is is set to reach $250 million, expects Srikanth Velamakanni.

Among the new initiatives that Fractal has come up with is Crux Intelligence. This combines machine learning and natural language processing to allow enterprises to easily gather business intelligence from data and convert such analysis into action, the daily noted.

"It’s like the Siri or Google Assistant for businesses. Customers can query in simple language and have data analysis and personalized business insights at their fingertips,” Bloomberg quoted Crux Intelligence's head Kathy Leake as saying.

Apart from these, Fractal has also incubated several other AI projects including Qure.ai, Theremin.ai and Eugenie.ai.