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.