Portland-based serial Tech-Entrepreneur Nitin Khanna has invested $5 million in a Punjab startup Isos, which is into developing IT solutions such as smart attendance, real time tracking and monitoring, inventory management, cashless transactions and security management.
Isos, awarded "Innovative Idea of the Year" by Tiecon Chandigarh 2017, is an icon of Indian start-up eco-system from the Tier 2 cities in India with original ideas and services.
Nitin Khanna, founder, chairman and CEO of Saber Corp., one of the largest providers of state government solutions in the United States, said, "The zeal and commitment showcased by the Indian entrepreneurs, hailing from small towns is amazing. Today, investors are much more willing to invest in start-up, but the problem is identifying the right start-up to invest and scale it has been the area of my expertise."
India among top in startups
In terms of total number of startups, India again figured among the five largest hosts in the world, along with China (10,000 each). India is home to third largest number of technology start-ups in the world, with the US and the UK occupying the top two positions, according to a study by ASSOCHAM in association with Thought Arbitrage Research Institute.
The Smart attendance system and real time tracking with monitoring is the software that can be deployed in campuses, government hospitals, offices, and industries.
Portland-based serial Tech-Entrepreneur, Nitin Khanna is also the chairman of MergerTech, a global M&A advisory firm that works with technology entrepreneurs to maximize identifying the ideal financial or strategic acquirer with a sale range of $10 million to $200 million.
Nitin cofounded Saber in July 1998 and helped grow it to 1200 employees and over $120MM in revenue by 2007 when it was sold to EDS for $460MM.
Narrating his initiation into business domain, Nitin said:
Entrepreneurship has been in my blood since birth. Some of my earliest memories, as a 5 or 6 year-old, are of being awakened at 4 a.m. by my uncles, bundled up, put in a car, and then we would drive all over the Indian state of Punjab to collect the money owed to my family from brick kilns, to whom we sold coal and lumber. During the entire long day, I would sit in the back seat, listening to my uncles talk nonstop about business. They discussed the value of cash, negotiations on price and collections, hunkering down during difficult times, growth and expansion, as well as the value of great employees and treating them right. I learned about business organically in the back seat of a car during innumerable rides that began at 5 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. That kind of early education and experience is hard to come by and formed so much of the basis of my success in later years".
