NEW DELHI|MUMBAI: After off road industrial tyres, oil and gas, financial services, logistics and data centres, Warburg Pincus is turning towards business process management (BPM) to create a brand new global platform.Backing industry veterans, former Genpact executives Mohit Thukral, Gaurav Sethi and Harpeet Duggal, the marquee growth equity investors have agreed to commit up to a billion dollars to launch Vivtera, drawn from a combination of Sanskrit and Latin words vivarta and literameaning change through knowledge and experience. The platform aims to acquire or partner companies in high-end financial services and fast growth technology industries of north America, Europe, Japan, Australia. The trio was part of the core team that helped build Genpact into one of the largest global BPOs. Now, they plan to leverage that experience for a new startup with strong digital and analytics capabilities to help clients in “change and knowledge transformation,” said Thukral, managing partner, Vivtera.“There are very few domain focused, high quality, tech enabled service providers who can address the changing dynamics of BPM 3.0.” The total addressable BPM market Vivtera is targeting is $90-100 billion, or half the total size, growing at 15-20% a year. “We are seeking to acquire standalone BPM assets or to partner with captives or carve them out to further invest in them for growth. We will evaluate assets globally with enterprise value of $300 million to $1billion in order to kickstart the platform,” Thukral explained.For example, anti-money laundering fraud is a very a big issue for banks. Vivtera could create a platform with very pointed technology, artificial intelligence (AI) driven solutions that will change the game. “If we can bring the right solution for the customer, impact is huge for everyone including customers and shareholders,” said Duggal, managing partner, Vivtera.
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The intent is to build a significant platform along with Warburg Pincus and take it to market. To develop and grow the platform the team will look at acquiring foundational assets with deep domain expertise. “Vivtera will then put together an ecosystem of partners and build use cases like AI, machine learning or KYC, etc,” added Sethi, managing partner Vivtera.This model is very different from the way the BPO industry grew. Vivtera, in partnership with Warburg Pincus, plans to create a global platform with a focus on value creation and not driven by labour arbitrage. Sensing an opportunity to break the clutter, the idea is to focus on and dive into select, high growth niches instead of the industry practice of delivering in 30-40 service lines and sectors. “We are building on just two industries so that we can develop and invest on our propertietary IP backed by the latest technology tools.“The focus will be on disruption. Many large companies get bogged down with legacy contracts and business models while listed companies have other shareholder challenges,” said Sethi.Vivtera will also have access to Warburg portfolio of companies, said Duggal. It has already initiated dialogue with several to build a pipeline. “We could partner.. There could be synergies. It is a bit of leveraging partner network and their current investment — like if they have deep cybersecurity capability, we will invest,” he added. This will be the first such platform for Warburg. “BPM is going through an inflection point and traditional business models are getting disrupted by technology and automation. Our approach is to align with a team that has deep domain expertise, a track record of value creation and clear strategy on how to build a differentiated business in this fast evolving sector This allows us to be selective about what assets to look for and what to pay for them,” said Viraj Sawhney, MD, Warburg Pincus.