Commerce grad takes an early telecom call, grows Rs1 lakh to Rs300 crore

To most people, a comparison between telecom and tobacco would be incomprehensible. But for Mahesh Choudhary, “Data is as addictive as tobacco. If I have a 1 mbps connection, I want a 10 mbps one. If I can watch a video on my phone, I then want to watch the World Cup matches streamed live.”

This desire that he sees among mobile and internet users has made Choudhary, 31, create Microqual Techno — a company engaged in telecom offerings ranging from making radio frequency equipment to tower installation to in-building solutions.  

The 11-year-old company is now looking to turn over Rs300 crore this fiscal. “Next year, we should be making over Rs700 crore,” says Choudhary.

And for a company that started with just a little over Rs1 lakh, those are grand numbers.

“It was very difficult for me because I am a commerce graduate (from Mithibai College) and I did not understand these things,” says Choudhary.

Microqual has long eclipsed in size his family’s dyes & chemicals business.

“I felt like an illiterate and was scared of asking questions but then I met scientists from IIT-Bombay, DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). I got two MTech and two PhD graduates to work for me, and then I got involved with TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs).”

Now Microqual employs 900 people, of whom 150 are engineers. The thrust, however, is not on research & development, according to Choudhary.

“There are enough technologies developed overseas. We just need to customise them for India.” Talking of his growth plans, he adds, “Telecom is eventually a game of scale. Either you grow or you diversify.”

However, he’s is no mood to diversify after seeing the opportunities in the Indian telecom market. India has 75.2 crore mobile subscribers and is adding 1.2-1.5 crore every month.

This also means competition for Microqual from players like GTL Infrastructure, Indus Towers and Shyam Telecom in its different business segments.

At present, Microqual is awaiting the outcome of its bid to lease 12,000 towers of Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) in Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Viom Networks is the only other bidder.

“The result should be out in a week,” says Choudhary. These towers, after a spend of Rs15 lakh on each of them, can be used as telecom towers.

India has 400,000 towers, of which 150,000 belong to PGCIL and the rest to state transmission companies, who are also mulling the leasing of their towers. Microqual also plans to expand overseas to other South Asian countries, Africa and Europe.

“We are acquiring a French company in China,” says Choudhary.
But ironically, for someone in a business where technology changes everyday, Choudhary says that ideally he would not like to be very tech-savvy. “But I have to keep track of developments.”

To fund its growth plans, Microqual is at the moment evaluating raising funds from investors for a third time and possibly even go public.

It first mopped up $10 million in 2007 from NEA-IndoUS Venture Partners, JAFCO Asia and BTS India Fund, and a similar amount last year from Headland Capital Partners, formerly HSBC Private Equity (Asia).