MapmyIndia founders Rakesh and Rashmi Verma mapped every corner of the country
More than two decades ago, when Rakesh and Rashmi Verma decided to create a digital map of India, the pair were literally walking on new terrain. Long before Google revolutionized the site map, the Vermas walked through India’s major cities, carefully charting streets and landmarks.
But the enormous quest to build their company, MapmyIndia, paid off on Tuesday. Vermas’ startup enjoyed a resounding success in its initial public offering after initial public offering. Shares rose about 35% to 1,393.65 Indian rupees ($18.4), pushing the pair’s net worth to around $586 million. It’s a pretty bold start for a company that sells digital maps and geographic data of India’s challenging terrain.
The strong launch in the market marked some recent highs for MapmyIndia, officially known as CE Info Systems Ltd. Earlier this month, the company reported that it had received bids for more than 150 times the number of shares offered in its initial public offering. Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. was among the companies that bought the company’s software.
The husband and wife group, who own nearly 54% of the company’s shares after the IPO, are the latest founders to hit gold in This year the stock market boomed. Indian startups, in particular, are having a moment of buoyancy thanks to the pandemic’s strong demand for e-commerce and online services. Homegrown businesses like MapmyIndia have led a new wave of fundraising, setting IPO records and poking the ears of investors looking for the next big market in Asia.
“Nobody understood the map data when we started,” Rakesh said in a pre-listing phone interview. Now, 25 years on, map data has spread across businesses, industries, government-owned companies and ministries.
Start up report profit margin of 31% in the last financial year, with sales of Rs 1.92 billion ($25 million) and net profit of Rs 594.3 million. Its profit margin reached 46% for the first two quarters of the current year, ending September.
Rakesh, 71, and Rashmi, 65, founded their company in the mid-1990s, when businesses were less interested in buying map data. At that time, public internet access was not introduced in India. Startups have yet to define the culture of today’s tech heavens, including Bengaluru and Gurgaon.
As the entrepreneurial sector expands in India, the Vermas stand out for their enduring power. Rashmi leads the technology division of the business, serving as its chief technology officer. Rakesh is credited with expanding into sectors ranging from automobiles to government-owned companies.
Their skill sets have been honed abroad. In the late 1970s, after graduating from elite engineering schools in India, Vermas went to the US, where they completed graduate degrees and successfully launched corporate careers. Rakesh climbed the ranks at General Motors Co.
At the time, “the database was tabular, the data was in megabytes, and there was no internet,” says Rashmi. CE Information System was established in February 1995.
The couple said the first years of mapping India were more or less a nightmare. Rakesh was often accompanied by surveyors on the streets of Mumbai, where the team recorded the address manually. As technology improved, triangulation data helped capture the more remote corners of the country.
The gamble paid off. Just a year after starting the business, The Coca-Cola Company hired Vermas to chart their distributors, which for years had been delineated by vague markers like “along a river.” ” or “next to the highway”. Motorola, Ericsson AB and Qualcomm Inc. followed suit, contracting the company to build topographic maps and locate their cell towers. In 2004, Rakesh and Rashmi announced India’s first interactive mapping platform.
“Our data model is our key IP, and that’s what gives us a head start in the field,” says Rakesh. “We’ve mapped 99.99% of India, capturing every city, town, village and place to live.”
Globally, Google Maps dominates the consumer segment of the market, with over a billion users, far more than its competitors. The app is underpinned by its high brand recall and the advantage of pre-installing the software on Android devices.
In contrast, MapmyIndia has excelled at selling licenses to the biggest automakers, including BMW AG and Daimler AG’s Mercedes Benz, and reaching out to global brands like McDonald’s Corp. Many of Vermas’ customers are also local startups, including Paytm, a digital payments platform company, and Ola, a popular car-sharing company. Qualcomm, Zenrin Co. and Flipkart, now owned by Walmart Inc., are among the startup’s investors.
Taking the business public is the logical next step after the Indian government rule change this year through the collection of cartographic and geographic data. The new measures force foreign companies to buy data directly from Indian-owned companies, providing another stepping stone for MapmyIndia to capture the local market and turn competitors like Apple Maps – a company that uses the startup’s software – to a customer. Across India, the company speak it has 95% market share of GPS navigation.
With the cash injection, Vermas plans to expand after integrating maps of more than 200 countries into their software platform. But the couple said Tuesday’s success will not affect their lifestyle. They have no plans to travel or move away from their home in a tree-lined suburb of Delhi. About half an hour of their commute to the company headquarters on the outskirts of the city will continue.
“My work and my family, including my four nieces, have been my lifelong passion,” says Rashmi. “Nothing changes.”
One thing is clear: The demand for geographic data is skyrocketing. The Indian government was expected to have a market worth $14 billion by the end of the decade, reflecting one of the fastest growth rates in the world. Rakesh couldn’t help but marvel at how it all came together.
“We are profitable, our future revenue is predictable, and our valuation is easy to achieve,” he said.
