How Robosoft built a value machine

Why read this story?

Editor's note: Rohith Bhat moved back to India in 1996, a few years after liberalization, or the opening up of the economy that marked a radical turning point for the country. Bhat had been working at a software company in Japan called Recosoft for about three years at that point. Spotting an opportunity in building software for Apple’s Mac platform, he decided to start his own business, called Robosoft, back in his home town of Udupi, Karnataka. A couple of weeks ago, Robosoft Technologies announced that it was being acquired by a Japanese conglomerate—TechnoPro Holdings—for Rs 805 crore, or around $108 million. Bhat’s 25-year-old software company had only raised about $16 million in external funding in total. The news sent ripples through India’s startup ecosystem and IT sector. How had a little-known app maker tucked out of the way in Udupi, a city known more for temples than for industry, managed close to $25 million in annual revenue and delivered an exit that any venture capital fund would kill for? In the wake of the acquisition, the company’s success has broadly been …