‘Technology consulting has a lot of growth upside in coming years’

Indian IT firms have been serving global clients for many decades now. And this is not confined to large IT firms. Many small and mid-tier technology firms are able to attract good number of customers in the US and Europe through their innovative products and solutions. TreadBinary is one such technology and consulting company, which has seen rapid growth since inception. Founded by Yuvraj Shidhaye and Darshil Shah, the company has leveraged its strong domain knowledge to provide differentiated offering to its customers.

In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, Darshil Shah, Director of TreadBinary said that the company is aggressively focussing on growing its product revenue in coming years. The IT firm already has two products and many more are on the pipeline, Shah said. In the last three years, the company has seen its revenue growing rapidly and it is confident of sustaining the revenue momentum. The IT firm, which has most of its customers from Europe and North America, has also established a subsidiary in the US. Going ahead, the Thane-headquartered company will grow its headcount apart from strengthening its international presence.

Can you give a brief overview of operations at TreadBinary? What are the key focus areas of your company?

We are a three-year old company. We started this company with a mindset of research and innovation. We operate in product development and consulting space in the overall technology industry. We identify the problems in enterprises and by using appropriate technologies, we resolve them. The term binary suggests that we are focussed on providing concrete solution without any grey areas. We identify industry-specific problems and resolve them by using appropriate technologies, thereby bringing in revolutionary changes in business functioning. We are a technology-agnostic company. That is applied to both our verticals- products and solutions.

How the idea of setting up TreadBinary came up? What was the trigger? Will you give some idea on this aspect?

I and Yuvraj (Shidhaye) were friends working in ThyssenKrupp. We were working on the same project, which was related to aerospace industry. During that period, we were able to identify some problem statements and solutions to resolve it. Then, we tried to validate our ideas. At that time, we visited the Defence Expo in 2020 and showcased our software solution to several participants. This was how we validated our idea. That also gave us the realisation that the unorganised sector doesn’t have any support system in terms of software solution. Then, we decided to set up the company.

Can you elaborate on the technology agnostic aspect that the company follows?

Let me give some examples. We are working with several medium enterprises. These clients are using ERPs of various functions. We don’t know what kind of technology is being used for running these ERPs. But our expertise lies in knowing the processes, how the processes are getting implemented and what are the KPIs (key performance indicators). Because, if the KPIs are not set properly, it will not provide desired results. So, our first priority is to understand the business and then, provide solution. We don’t market any specific technology. Based on the requirement of client, we have a checklist and provide customise solution. We are a passionate 50 people-team now. We are able to implement that solution inhouse. Also, we have a good partner ecosystem which help us in delivering the solution. We have process experts across domains like manufacturing, retail, educational practice and many others.

As far as verticalization is concerned, we have two verticals- products and services. We have developed our own products and there are couple of products on the pipeline. In terms of consulting, we are looking at qualitative and niche segments. We are not restricting ourselves to any specific technology and sector.

You said that TreadBinary has developed its own products. Can you throw some light on these products and demand environment?

In Products, we have developed a product named ‘HAC’, which has been designed, developed and being used primarily in the cutting industry, offering an innovative solution to fundamental challenges. At TreadBinary, we also address supply chain management issues with a planning application- “digitally optimized supply chain planning- doSCP”, which is a unique solution that streamlines supply chain operations. We have patent for our product ‘HAC’. For all these products, we have more than a dozen customers and we are in talks with multiple multi-national corporations for adoption of these products.

As mentioned earlier, we have more than four products on the pipeline. There are also many products, which are in ideation phase.

What is the technology backbone of your products?

There are couple of technology, which are backbones of our products. These are SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Azure, and others. We have talented resources in Python and related segments. The problem is that while there may be different technology applications used by an enterprise, we have often seen they work in silos. We represent as solution architect, who bridges the gap between these technologies.

Which segment of the business is the biggest among product and services? Can you throw some light on this aspect?

For TreadBinary, consulting is the biggest pie. We get most of our revenue from consulting services as of now. It is important to understand that product development requires investment, a lot of time for building and adoption. So, to grow the business, we have focussed on consulting. We are bootstrapped and have not raised any money from external investors. So, for sustaining the business, it is important to get the revenue from consulting business.

You said the company remains bootstrapped till now. Do you intend to raise money in the future?

Yes, we remain bootstrapped. Our primary focus is on cashflows. We are organised like a multi-national corporation. We have our own ERP. We want to make sure that we don’t face any challenge in our internal operations when we scale up.

How has been the growth journey so far? Please provide some numbers in terms of revenue.

We have a remarkable growth journey so far with rising adoption among customers. In the financial year 2022-23, the company achieved a turnover of Rs 4 crore. We expect to end the current financial year with a top line of around Rs 12 crore. This indicates a consistent remarkable growth rate of about 300 per cent. The company’s network is primarily organic, with a strong international presence, including connections with CEOs, COOs, CTOs and CIOs of various companies. We are confident of growing our revenue rapidly in the coming years.

Going ahead, we will increase the contribution of the products to our total revenue. In terms of percentage, the share of product revenue will grow, which can give us exponential growth.

Can you give a brief overview about your customer profile? Are those small and medium enterprises or big corporations?

In consulting, most of our clients are multi-national. European firms including German companies coupled with North American customers constitute majority of our client base. TreadBinary has a 100 per cent subsidiary TreadBinary Inc., in the USA and has a presence in Sweden and Germany through partnerships.