Bootstrapped Coimbatore AI Startup Gives Rs 14 Crore Bonus To 140 Employees

Kovai.co is an Artificial Intelligence startup based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 2011 by Saravanakumar, a former IT employee.

Fourteen years later, the startup created wealth for its employees by distributing bonuses worth Rs 14 crore to them.

According to NDTV Profit, when Saravanakumar (48) was asked why he was giving such a huge bonus, he responded with a question, “Why do people work for startups?” He believes they do so to become rich one day.

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‘SHARES ARE JUST PAPER MONEY’

Highlighting how most startups reward employees with shares, Saravanakumar argues that it is just ‘paper money.’ He says people don’t know when and what they’ll get out of them.

“I wanted to give my employees something tangible. Three years ago I told them - stay with us for three years and I will give you six months of your salary of January 2025 as a bonus,” he said.

Now 140 individuals of the Coimbatore-based startup have cumulatively received Rs 14 crore as a bonus.

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HOW KOVAI STARTED

Hailing from Coimbatore, Saravanakumar left for London 25 years ago. He worked as an IT employee for more than ten years.

But when he discovered a gap in the market, he decided to launch his startup and called it Kovai.co. 

Saravanakumar and his team innovated three core products under Kovai:

1. Turbo 360: It is a tech product that optimizes cloud costs and enables customers to save up to 30%.

2. Document 360: It helps clients develop and update the Help page on their websites.

3. Biztalk 360: It is an integrated platform that brings backend applications like SAP and Salesforce under one roof by connecting them.

According to the founder, the startup is completely bootstrapped and has zero external funding. 

With clients like BBC, Boeing, and Shell, Kovai.co currently generates a total of $15 million in annual revenues. The company is worth $100 million.

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THE UNICORN DREAM

While Saravanakumar spends the majority of his time in London with his wife and two sons, he visits his parents in Coimbatore every eight months. 

The founder aims to make Kovai.co a unicorn and clock $100 million in revenue by 2030. He believes everything is on track to achieve the goal.

Speaking to NDTV Profit, he said, “I want to make Kovai.co a unicorn. The ambition is to make $100 million in revenue by 2030. Things are going in the right direction.”

Apart from making Kovai a unicorn, another thing that drives him is his love for cars.

He even has a roadmap of the cars he wants to buy as Kovai achieves certain milestones.

Jokingly, he said, he sacrificed buying the Bugatti Chiron in order to give the Rs 14 crore bonus to his employees.

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