It was a day to remember for five senior executives and their families at the Chennai-based workflow software firm Kissflow as they drove back home with brand new 5 Series BMW cars – each worth about ₹1 crore – gifted by the company’s founder Suresh Sambandam. This was to recognise their long association with the company.
The Software-as-a-Service company on Friday celebrated the 10th year since the launch of its flagship ‘no-code’ work management product by gifting the black luxury cars to its senior leadership team.
Emotional moment
It was an emotional moment for their family members as the five executives – Dinesh Varadharajan, Chief Product Officer; Kausikram Krishnasayee, Director of Product Management; Vivek Madurai, Director of Engineering; Adhi Ramanathan, Director of Engineering and Prasanna Rajendran, Vice President – were feted by Sambandam on the lawns of the sprawling World Trade Centre.
“I could not think of a better gift than a luxury car. These are the people who stayed with me in the trenches. Without them Kissflow would not be where it is today. This is a very small token of appreciation,” said Sambandam.
The gift came as a total surprise to the five executives, who were told about it only in the afternoon during a lunch with Sambandam. “It was just unbelievable. It was a dream come true for me,” said Adhi Ramanathan. The gift was kept as a secret but rumours, including a possible funding and acquisition, were floating around throughout the day, said Sambandam, who has a three-year-old 6 Class series BMW.
Sambandam said that it was a ‘super special day’ as the company bought back shares from its investor Indian Angel Network, which had invested nearly $1 million as seed funding in 2012. They would have got 5-10X times returns, he said without giving financial details.
He also announced that the company plans to spend nearly $10 million in expanding operations overseas and setting up offices in Dubai; Brazil, the Philippines and three in the US. Nearly, 92 per cent of revenue comes from outside India, and the company has customers in nearly 160 countries, he said.
Published on
April 08, 2022
