Collatree, a global provider of software services based in Kozhikode in Kerala, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-series A funding from business leaders in Saudi Arabia. With this, the company is expanding its presence to Saudi Arabia, a company spokesperson said. Collatree had created headlines earlier by announcing the merger of seven start-ups with different entrepreneurial roots in their bid to beat the Covid-19 blues. Manu Ganga, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Advisor, had explained to businessline how the merged entity had introduced the trend-setting ‘Thrasio’ model in Kerala.
Thrasio model pilot
Under a Thrasio model, named after an eponymous US unicorn, a start-up collaborates with or acquires peers in a specific vertical and shares knowledge and resources to run them most efficiently. “At Collatree, we utilise each other’s knowledge base and experience and work under a single umbrella to give the best value proposition to clients,” Ganga had said . With its main focus on transforming businesses using the best-in-breed solutions, Collatree aims to curate the offerings to save companies time and money. Since the coming together of the seven, Collatree has crossed $1 million in sales, the spokesperson said.
Seven disparate start-ups
The seven start-ups that formed Collatree: Networth Software Solutions (software and web development, founded by Kavita Nair; Glaube Technologies (logistics, Faeez Musthaq); Growth Associates (digital marketing and growth, Akshay V and Manu Ganga); Zinfog (software and web development, Vivek Madhavan and Abdul Basith); Capio (brand marketing, Rifath Rahman); Armino Technologies (IoT and software development, Sooraj Narayanan); and Odox (Odoo open source ERP services, Muhammed Niyas Pavil and Muhammed Shiyas KP).
Focus in Saudi Arabia
Though these start-ups were all part of different entrepreneur groups, they looked at alternative ways to expand business before coming together, Manu Ganga said. Speaking about why Saudi Arabia has become important for Collatree, he said the kingdom in West Asia aims to grow on the digital and software fronts by 2030. “There has been a lot of support from the government as well, which makes it an attractive destination. While our primary focus of business interest has been major corporations and government projects in Saudi Arabia, we have also identified some start-ups based there for collaboration.”
Larger footprint in West Asia
Collatree has two offices in Saudi Arabia, one each in Jeddah and Riyadh with a mix of local and global talent. “Headed by Director and CEO Rifath Rahman, Manu Nambiar, Kavitha Nair (COO ,India) and Musthaq Ahamed (COO, Saudi Arabia), we will work in tandem to nurture and grow leads in Saudi Arabia,” Ganga added. The company aims at expanding its presence further across West Asia across countries such as the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait as well as in India and Australia.
