Kedaara Capital acquires majority stake in GS Lab

Representative Image (Source: ShutterStock)

Private equity firm Kedaara Capital on November 9 acquired a majority stake in GS Lab, a Pune-headquartered digital product engineering service firm, for an undisclosed amount.

“Over the past 18 years, we have scaled GS Lab into a 1600+ person innovation-led organisation. The investment by Kedaara will enable us to further build on our strengths and take advantage of the growing need for innovative software and digital solutions across industries globally and in India,” said Shridhar Shukla and Sunil Gaitonde, the co-founders of GS Lab.

GS Lab claimed that it has grown at a “stellar rate of 20 percent plus” in the past five years. Investment from Kedaara will enable GS Lab to accelerate business growth, and offer digital product engineering services to a wider pool of customers and enterprises. Besides, the company said it will continue to focus on leading-edge technologies to meet the digital needs of customers and create an enriching work environment for all employees.

DC Advisory, a global investment bank, acted as the sole financial advisor to GS Lab on the transaction.

Sunish Sharma, Co-CEO and Managing Partner of Kedaara, and Parin Mehta, Managing Director of Kedaara, said in a statement that digital transformation is one of the key investment themes for them and “we are very excited to partner with the GS Lab team to support their continued development of outstanding digital software products for their clients worldwide”.

They said GL Lab has built a strong platform with “exceptional product engineering capabilities, focus on innovation and partnerships with world-class clients”.

Digital product engineering services is a high-growth sector globally. According to NASSCOM, India’s engineering R&D sector is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13 percent to $ 65 billion by 2025, up from $31 billion in 2019. This growth is being fuelled by accelerating digitalisation across industry verticals.

“It is quite clear that digital is becoming the core differentiator for businesses across the board globally. With a strong product DNA and IP-led culture, GS Lab is very well positioned to be one of the premier digital engineering service providers based out of India,” said Pramod Bhasin, Operating Partner, Kedaara, and former president and chief executive of Genpact.