Mini Joseph Tejaswi TNN
Bangalore: They are truly an “enterprising couple”. The husband-wife entrepreneur duo, K Ganesh and Meena Ganesh, has struck gold again with their sale of Tutor-Vista to the Pearson Group. Ganesh had started the online tutoring firm in July 2005 with a funding of $2.15 million from Sequoia Capital. Now the firm has been valued at close to Rs 1,000 crore. In 1990, Ganesh set up his first venture, IT&T, with five partners from HCL, where he used to work. That company specialized in maintaining and integrating computer systems. It went public in 2000 and parts of it were then sold to iGate. In 2000, Ganesh and Meena floated BPO firm CustomerAsset. Two years later, it was sold to ICICI for around $20 million. Ganesh also backed startup KPO firm Marketics, which was sold to WNS for $65 million in 2007. He has worked with HCL, Wipro British Telecom, a VSAT company that became Bharti British Telecom. Meena has worked with NIIT and Microsoft and as CEO of Tesco India. Ganesh spoke to TOI after the Pearson deal. Excerpts:
Now that your company has a single majority owner, will you exit this business soon?
This is only the end of our first innings. It is just the halfway point and we are resetting the clock at this point to take TutorVista to a $1 billion company from $213 million now in the next five years. We still own 20% in the company and Pearson will have 76%. Our exit will happen after we reach the $1 billion milestone.
This is only the end of our first innings. It is just the halfway point and we are resetting the clock at this point to take TutorVista to a $1 billion company from $213 million now in the next five years. We still own 20% in the company and Pearson will have 76%. Our exit will happen after we reach the $1 billion milestone.
What was the level of business clarity you had when you floated TutorVista?
Five years ago, it was only a paper plan. We were getting into a business which had noparallel or existing model. So the risk was high. Level of clarity was quite low. We were pragmatic. We took an incubation facility at IIIT-B at Electronics City in Bangalore because we were not sure of paying up the 10-month rental advance etc. Neither did we want to make investments in furniture and fixtures.
Five years ago, it was only a paper plan. We were getting into a business which had noparallel or existing model. So the risk was high. Level of clarity was quite low. We were pragmatic. We took an incubation facility at IIIT-B at Electronics City in Bangalore because we were not sure of paying up the 10-month rental advance etc. Neither did we want to make investments in furniture and fixtures.
What were the challenges you faced?
The biggest hurdle was related to handling “remote” issues. Remote students, remote market, handling remote tutors between remote locations, and the general remote nature of the business. But in the first 18 to 24 months, we could see the model working. We hit our firstmillion dollars in 2007. We saw us actually becoming the biggest B2C Indian company in the education space serving the US market, without even employing a single person in the customer market.
The biggest hurdle was related to handling “remote” issues. Remote students, remote market, handling remote tutors between remote locations, and the general remote nature of the business. But in the first 18 to 24 months, we could see the model working. We hit our firstmillion dollars in 2007. We saw us actually becoming the biggest B2C Indian company in the education space serving the US market, without even employing a single person in the customer market.
How happy are your investors now?
In December 2006, we got another $3 million from Sequoia; Lightspeed Venture Partners gave us $7 million while another $750,000 came from Silicon Valley Bank. Since then, our valuation, branding and reach have gone up significantly and all our investors including Manipal Education are happy. Now Pearson is going to give us further branding, positioning, resources and a global platform.
In December 2006, we got another $3 million from Sequoia; Lightspeed Venture Partners gave us $7 million while another $750,000 came from Silicon Valley Bank. Since then, our valuation, branding and reach have gone up significantly and all our investors including Manipal Education are happy. Now Pearson is going to give us further branding, positioning, resources and a global platform.
K Ganesh & wife Meena
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