IT industry veteran Ganesh Natarajan, who has donned an investor’s hat post his retirement from Zensar, has recently backed Studio Coppre, a Pune-based all-women’s start-up which is working towards the cause of copper artisans in Maharashtra and other parts of the country.

Natarajan told that there are currently two types of ventures that he is backing.

“One is where we will do a majority investment like building a digital platform for learning and that is still being finalised. The other is like Studio Coppre, where we have taken a minority position but not less than 15%”, Nataranjan said.

Natarajan added that the idea is to help the group, which is led by a team trained in specialised design skills, to run a business by putting design thinking into integrating all the artisans.

After tapping the domestic market, with tie up with firms such as Fabindia, Studio Coppre is now targeting the international market too, its founder and lead designer, Rashmi Ranade told.

Set in 2014, Coppre had got seed funding from Forbes Marshall Foundation, Pune before Natarajan’s firm invested in them. It had revenues of Rs 1.5 crore at the end of March 2016 and Ranade said they are hoping to double it next year.

“We are already working with 15-18 retail partners in India such as Fabindia, Baaya Design in Mumbai, Kamala in Delhi etc. Now we need to look at exports since the international hand-crafted market is growing year-on-year”, Ranade said.

Natarajan, who retired earlier this year, is backing these ventures through his firm 5F World, set up in partnership with his wife, Uma Ganesh through which he wants to focus on the areas of skills, start-ups and social ventures in the country. Natarajan said that he is also currently evaluating a third venture.

“If we look at the community of young graduates, these are people who get a job but then they leave. The attrition levels are as high as 35%. We want to see how it can be gamified and an engagement platform can be created to help the situation”, Nataranjan said.

Natarajan had earlier told that he will invest between Rs 25-30 lakh in seven-eight companies this year who are working either in the skills or communities area, or in technologies like augmented reality, big data or analytics and he has earmarked about Rs 4 crore for the planned startup investments.

Source: The Economic Times