On October 21, 2009, N. R. Narayana Murthy sold Rs. 174 crore worth of Infosys shares to capitalise Catamaran, his venture capital fund. If Murthy ever needs advice for this new venture, he won’t have to look too far. He just has to call the man who could have been the second CEO of Infosys but turned down the job in 1999 and quit the company in 2000. Nadathur Raghavan doesn’t even live too far away. He is right there in Bangalore.
The approach takes a longer view. “Since they can invest and stay invested over a long term, they’re building pretty much everything from scratch. It’s a good strategy but the proof can be only be seen in a couple of years,” says Gautam Nadig, one of the co-founders of Metahelix, a Nadathur group company.
(This story appears in the 20 November, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
It takes extra-ordinary guts and vision, to tear off from an emerging giant like INFOSYS and tread a lonely path, where there was no second chair at the top.All this achieved bya south Indian conventional vaishnava brahmin, is indeed breath taking and out of the world. It also speaks volumes of the chief founder of INFOSYS, Narayanamoorthy, to take leaf out of Raghavan's book and start the Catamaran Investments. India cannot be made rich by the state and central Governments, nor by organised business companies, whose employment generatig potential is low, but only by crops and crops of ew entrpreneurs, who have to be nurtured, tended and cared bysupport from Nadathur like companies and funds. Raghavanji, kep up the good work and your 2 illustrious sons are alos out with you, betting their shirts, as you can always lend them your coat of knowledge and experience!!:-)).
on Jul 8, 2010