Chennai-based AI and technology start-up Mad Street Den will not be expanding or hiring aggressively despite securing Series-C funding of $30 million.
The company's co-founder and CEO Ashwini Asokan told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview that the company is focusing on "double-down" on existing geographies and clients as it looks to help bring about greater artificial intelligence adoption across large companies.
On January 18, the company announced that it had secured its funding of $30 million, with a new lead investor Avatar Growth Capital coming on board. The round also saw participation from existing investors, Sequoia Capital and Alpha Wave. In addition to "going deeper" in existing markets, Mad Street Den isn't looking to hire aggressively either.
"We don’t really need to hire as we are just coming out of a very successful acquisition from three months ago," she said, "We are adding people to the company but very carefully. We are only about 275 to 300 people today, and that’s still a small number for a company of our size." In November, Mad Street Den acquired New York-based inventory management solutions firm, Inturn.
Ashwini added, "We aren’t adding a whole lot to our headcount — probably 25 to 40 people — but the ones we hope to hire are those who have depth (of experience) in dealing with complex AI."
From its early beginnings in designing AI tools for fashion and apparel retail, Mad Street Den has diversified into verticals like finance, logistics, insurance, pharmaceuticals and healthcare in the last two years. "We have always envisioned the platform to be a general purpose one, as we go deep into large enterprises to solve specific problems for them," said Ashwini.
Today, the start-up’s client list includes Fortune 500 companies, among other large enterprises in Europe, India, the Middle East, the US, and Latin America.
"These companies don’t come to us to buy one thing but the entire platform as they adopt AI as part of their DNA," said Ashwini, "We are going deeper into these organizations and helping them transform with AI. You’ve heard of digital transformation over the last decade. This is the decade of AI transformation."
During what is widely regarded as one of the most challenging times for the tech industry, Mad Street Den has reported revenue growth of 100 percent year-on-year.
"When everybody was going nuts in 2021-22, we weren’t going nuts,” said Ashwini, referring to the rampant funding and hiring in the start-up ecosystem from a year ago. “When everything is sinking in 2023, we aren’t sinking — ours is a story of maintaining a steady state." She added: "We expect to continue our growth at a minimum rate of 100 percent," said Ashwini.
While admitting that a clear and present liquidity crunch was the dubious highlight of the start-up ecosystem this year, the Mad Street Den boss said there was still funding money widely available. However, she added that the bleak economic situation of today could slightly worsen before improving 18 months from now.
"Companies that are growing in a certain way and building very specific things that the market is demanding will always find capital,” she said, “There is money for early-stage start-ups and there is money for growth-stage companies — if they’re able to grow a certain way and cater to the demands of the market."
