Accel sees Amagi as a long-term Cloud play

When Amagi went public on January 21, it marked a rare moment for India's capital markets:

- Peerzada Abrar

A Bengaluru-based software company generating most of its revenue from overseas clients, built on proprietary technology (tech) rather than ecommerce or consumer services .For Accel, the venture firm behind the bet, it represents a 3.3-times return in just over four years — and they’re not selling. Shekhar Kirani and Rachit Parekh, Accel partners who have backed companies including Freshworks, BrowserStack, and Swiggy, in a video interview with Peerzada Abrar, discuss why they see Amagi as a long-term hold, their artificial intelligence (AI) investment thesis, and which portfolio companies might go public next. Edited excerpts:

Walk us through the investment thesis behind backing Amagi— what did you see in Cloud-based broadcast infrastructure that others might have missed?

■ Rachiit Parekh: We invested in Amagi at the end of 2021. The core thesis was the shift from broadcast and cable television (TV) to internet protocol (IP)-led streaming TV. As that shift was happening, the underlying infrastructure (infra) was also changing — from on-premises, old-school tech to Cloud-based systems.