With India foray, Cilio expects to double global business in 18 months

US-based SaaS firm Cilio Technologies expects to double its global business in the next 12-18 months with its foray into India which will also serve as its hub for operations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, a top official of the company said.

Cilio President and CEO Rick Olejnik told PTI that to cater to the growth the company will also double its engineering team in India.

"If we are able to make the right footprints in India in the next six months, I think it's going to contribute almost more than double what Cilio is doing right now in the next 12 to 18 months. That's the plan. Being very aggressive on it," he said.

The company, which focuses on home furnishing segment, entered the Indian market with the acquisition of startup Automation Factory.

Olejnik said that home improvement products are coming with improved standardisation and the per capita spent on house improvement has been growing 40 per cent year-on-year in India which is going to drive the company's software-as-a-service in India.

The company works with vendors in the home improvement segment through retailers like Lowe's, Home Depot, Ikea etc. It provides software tools that facilitate options from product selection till their installation as well as associated services. Olejnik said that the company has started with a team of 45 engineers in India and is going to invest in a sales team.

"We plan to double our engineering team in the next 6 to 9 months. Since we are launching this product in India, we have a focus on increasing some footprints, especially around the digital marketing space because we need to have a digital identity at the same time. In addition, there will be a lot of focus on acquiring new customers which will require a lot of focus on the sales team as well," he said.

Cilio claims to have registered around 35 per cent growth in India on a year-over-year basis and expects the same to continue.

Olejnik said the company has plans to launch operations in Singapore in the third quarter of this year which will be managed from India and then expand to Dubai by March 2025 quarter.

"We plan to be more aggressive because the idea is to start with India and to expand into Singapore and Dubai. Those two markets are very structured, with a huge expat population, which would contribute to our footprint in Southeast Asia. So, the idea is not only about India, it's all about business in Southeast and Middle East Asia. The operations will be managed from India," he said.