Happiest Minds’ founder and chairman Ashok Soota said on Tuesday that he was “very much in charge” at the mid-cap IT firm, amid media reports that he was exploring a stake sale.
“There is nothing more important than the company’s AI-first initiative, and I am confident it is going to lead us to much higher growth rates,” Soota told reporters, responding to questions about the stake sale reports after the company announced third-quarter results.
An industry veteran, Soota holds a 32% stake in Happiest Minds directly, with another 11.8% through his promoter holding Ashok Soota Medical Research LLP. Together, his stake is valued at more than Rs 2,600 crore, as per the company’s latest market capitalisation.
He previously founded Mindtree (now LTIMindtree) and helped scale Wipro’s IT service business.
The Bengaluru-headquartered company said it will declare its annual guidance in the next quarter and AI revenue from the first quarter of fiscal FY27.
The company aims to double its AI team size next year from 500 currently, chief executive Joseph Ananthraju said.
It has a target to post $1 billion in revenue by FY31. With the recent market rout following AI lab Anthropic’s launch of Claude Cowork, the management is banking on its AI-led services to work towards it.
“Our goal of $1 billion will remain, but in the last three-four years, the entire industry had slowed down, and even we were impacted. So, clearly, there is a need to review that goal,” Soota said.
The company reported a 19.6% year-on-year fall in third-quarter net profit to Rs 40.30 crore, dented by one-time charges taken to account for labour code changes.
Sequentially, profit fell more than 25%. The charge was pegged at Rs 22 crore.
Revenue at Rs 587.56 crore rose 10.7% on-year and 2.4% sequentially. The company had 297 clients in the December quarter, including 11 it added in the three-month period.
“There is nothing more important than the company’s AI-first initiative, and I am confident it is going to lead us to much higher growth rates,” Soota told reporters, responding to questions about the stake sale reports after the company announced third-quarter results.
An industry veteran, Soota holds a 32% stake in Happiest Minds directly, with another 11.8% through his promoter holding Ashok Soota Medical Research LLP. Together, his stake is valued at more than Rs 2,600 crore, as per the company’s latest market capitalisation.
He previously founded Mindtree (now LTIMindtree) and helped scale Wipro’s IT service business.
The Bengaluru-headquartered company said it will declare its annual guidance in the next quarter and AI revenue from the first quarter of fiscal FY27.
The company aims to double its AI team size next year from 500 currently, chief executive Joseph Ananthraju said.
It has a target to post $1 billion in revenue by FY31. With the recent market rout following AI lab Anthropic’s launch of Claude Cowork, the management is banking on its AI-led services to work towards it.
“Our goal of $1 billion will remain, but in the last three-four years, the entire industry had slowed down, and even we were impacted. So, clearly, there is a need to review that goal,” Soota said.
The company reported a 19.6% year-on-year fall in third-quarter net profit to Rs 40.30 crore, dented by one-time charges taken to account for labour code changes.
Sequentially, profit fell more than 25%. The charge was pegged at Rs 22 crore.
Revenue at Rs 587.56 crore rose 10.7% on-year and 2.4% sequentially. The company had 297 clients in the December quarter, including 11 it added in the three-month period.
