CBay Systems founder moves into venture capital

Kumar set up CBay in 1998 with $100,000 in capital and sold his stake in the business to One Equity Partners - J.P. Morgan's private investment arm - in July. At the time, CBay's annual revenues had reached $475 million. The company, which was then rebranded as MModal, provides medical transcription services to hospitals, healthcare networks and physician practices across the US through its India-based workforce.

Kumar is now looking to back start-ups as well as companies in the secondary market, The Business Standard reported. Some of his investments will be channeled through venture capital funds, which will be managed by his new company, Aeries.

A first investment in India was already been completed - the acquisition of a 20% stake in listed security solutions provider Zicom. Kumar is also close to signing a deal with a company incubated at the University of Waterloo. Under the agreement, he will partner with another private equity player and take a 10-15% stake in the target.

"The company has been in existence for eight years and they have created intellectual property that adds analytics to voice and which can then be embedded into chipsets," he said. "It is a small set-up of 15-20 PhD engineers. But though they have IP they are yet to make products and have to work on a go-to-market strategy."

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Technology
• India
• Fundraising
• Venture