The Indian IPO market has been all the buzz this year. Several companies that have decided to go public have received an incredible response from investors. One of the year’s best-performing IPOs was TAC Infosec. The cybersecurity firm made a remarkable debut on April 5, opening at ₹290, a massive premium of 173% over the issue price of ₹106 on the NSE SME platform.
Last month, the company also reported its first financial results after going public. The Vijay Kedia-backed company reported a 17% increase in operating revenue, reaching ₹11.84 crore in FY24 from ₹10.09 crore. In H2 FY24, the company’s profit surged to ₹4.4 crore from ₹1.92 crore in the first half, while operating revenue jumped 30% to ₹6.59 crore in the second half of the year.
We caught up with the company’s CEO Trishneet Arora to learn about the company’s journey to the IPO, insights into the results and the plans for the year ahead.
Going Public
“Oh, the journey was amazing to be very honest,” this is how Arora describes the whole IPO experience. He added during the whole process he also got to learn a lot of new things. “We were able to build new processes in the organisation while we were preparing for IPO, which was not in place and it’s required for a public company, and we could immediately implement them. So, yeah, the journey was amazing to be very honest,” he added.
On being asked about the difference between operating as a private company compared to a publicly listed company Arora told Benzinga India, “I think both of them have their own pros and cons. I can definitely say that compliance is not a pressure, compliance is a must to do thing. Compliance helps you to streamline the processes within the organization.”
See Also: ‘Strong Performance Despite Slowdown In Developed Markets’: eClerx Services CEO On Q4-Print
The Results
“We remained profitable at the same capacity that we were last year despite building new products, partnerships etc. And I think it’s good,” Arora said. He also added that this year was different for the company because it took the company 2.5 years to get 100 customers on board but just in April 2024 the company got 105 new customers from 21 countries.
Talking about the jump in profit in the second half of the year Arora said that this is a trend that the company witnesses. “December last quarter in the US helps us and the last quarter in India (March quarter) also helps us to increase the numbers from the sales point of view.” He added that the company plans to keep the margins at the same levels for the year ahead as well.
When asked how the company plans to do that, while growing the business, Arora explained with an example. “We are expanding in the Middle East. So what we are doing is first we are expanding in the UAE, then we’ll go to Saudi, and we will build the cash flow in the UAE. So whatever earnings that we are getting, we spend that particular amount in Saudi and build the Saudi business. So then it does not have an impact on our margin or on our cash flow.”
The Macro Environment
One of the major hindrances faced by the IT sector in the last few years has been the hawkish macro environment. So we asked Arora whether he sees things changing this year.
“Honestly, yes the US and the UK have been in a tough phase for the past 1, 1.5 years that has been hitting the numbers for companies like us. But cyber security has become a need of the hour. It’s a centre point of anything that we discuss around digitalization or infrastructure.”
He added that while he does not see a lot of challenges going forward, the bleak macro environment does affect the momentum of the company’s growth.
The Expansion
Talking about the company’s expansion plans, Arora said that by the end of March 2025, the company is aiming to bring 3,000 new customers on board and “by March 2026 we are aiming to bring 10,000 new customers on board and become one of the largest vulnerability management companies in the world”
Read Next: Faster Growth, Steady Margins: LatentView Analytics CFO Reveals Strategy Post-Q4 EBITDA Surge
Don't miss a beat on the share market. Get real-time updates on top stock movers and trading ideas on Benzinga India Telegram channel.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.