Mu Sigma, a leading big data analytics company, has been lately in the news but not for its analytics abilities. Mu Sigma’s CEO Ambiga Subramanian and General Atlantic, US- based private equity investor are said to be in talks to sell their stake in Mu Sigma as per various sources. Each of them have 24% stake, accounting for a total of 48% stake in the analytics firm, valued at around $1.5 billion.
This ‘significant’ minority stake in the leading big data analytics company is being eyed by many global investors like Blackstone, Bain Capital, Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), as per sources. The combined stake which is up for sale can fetch a better valuation as it will allow the buyer to get a significant minority stake in a single deal.
Analytics India Magazine reached out to Mu Sigma to confirm this news, but the company officials replied, “No comments”.
Mu Sigma has been through a turmoil in the recent few months. The news of sale of stake by CEO Ambiga Subramanian has come just months after her divorce with Mu Sigma founder and chairman Dhiraj Rajaram became public.
Also the company saw exit of senior executives which has made the management shaky. Mu Sigma saw the exit of managing director Ganesh Lakshminarayanan in July 2016, months after the divorce. Also CFO Atul Bansal had left the company in March 2015. These exits and now probable sale of stake by CEO Subramanian and General Atlantic, Mu Sigma’s largest investor, is definitely a situation to watch out for.
Both CEO Ambiga Subramanian and Chairman Dhiraj Rajaram have 24% stake in the company. General Atlantic is the largest investor in Mu Sigma with 24% stake. Other investors include Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Investments and MasterCard.
Dhiraj Rajaram founded Mu Sigma in 2004. Ambiga Subramanian joined the company in 2007 as Director and became the CEO in February 2016 in place of Rajaram. The company has raised around $200 million of funds in 3 rounds since 2011. The largest funding was raised in December 2011 of $108 million and it was led by General Atlantic. This was one of the largest private equity investment made in an Indian analytics firm.
April 2011 saw investment by Sequoia Capital of $25 million in Mu Sigma. And in 2013, $45 million was raised by Mu Sigma in a round led by MasterCard with other investors including Fidelity Investments.
