THE EMERGING TECH STAR

Tata Elxsi has grown its revenue 3x over the past decade. But its growth momentum has picked up after Covid, riding the Al/GenAl wave.

- RUKMINI RAO

TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES, India's biggest IT firm, is the brightest star in the Tata galaxy, but at least one other Tata technology company refuses to be eclipsed.

Meet Tata Elxsi, which began as microcomputer maker Elxsi in the Silicon Valley, got its Tata prefix in 1989, and then focussed on embedded software. Tata Elxsi rode the Generative AI wave to report a net income surge to ₹3,552 crore in FY24, securing the third place on Fortune India's 100 Emerging Stars List, after the pandemic prompted the world to digitalise and embedded software found new areas.

Even before Covid, Tata Elxsi had stepped up the pace, doubling revenues to around ₹2,000 crore in 2022 in just six years. Tata Sons holds 42.22% and Tata Investment Corp 1.69% in the Bengaluru-based company, which completes 35 years this year as a Tata outfit.

Building its Tata innings in embedded software, Tata Elxsi hit revenues of ₹100 crore in 2000. From there, it took 16 years to reach ₹1,000 crore. But the wave of digitalisation triggered by Covid-19 disruptions and new trends in automobile technology helped it double revenues by 2022.

Automotive play

Tata Elxsi's revenues come from two business segments. One is software development & services (SDS), which provides offerings covering the entire life cycle from ideation to market for companies in transportation, media & communication, and healthcare & life sciences. Two (the more traditional), system integration and support (SIS), which is about DevOps security, cloud-managed services, migration, and network security-related services.