Vikram Labhe: On A Mission To Democratize Data Advantage
Vikram Labhe
Vice President & Managing Director
Fivetran is an American IT company having a base in Bangalore. Thanks to the company’s unique approach of managing data delivery from source to destination, and ensuring that clients' critical data is always accurate and up to date, Fivetran has been able to create its own niche in the industry. Furthermore, with a seamless five-minute, zero-configuration setup, the company today offers 150+ 201945fully managed,automated connectors for databases, applications, events, files and functions, alongside a plethora of benefits including automatic adjustment to schema and API changes,change data capture & log based replication to ensure data quality, 24/7 support, and 99.9 percent uptime SLA.
The man at the helm of the company’s Indian operations, Vikram has played an instrumental role in the company’s growth. The company recently bagged $565 million funding in the series D round, following the $100 million raised in July of 2020. In the aftermath of the most recent funding, Fivetran has also announced the acquisition of HVR, a company engaged in providing enterprise data replication technology. This is believed to allow Fivetran to provide breakthrough database replication performance along with enterprise grade security.
Clearly, it’s exciting times ahead for the company with a lot of business activities. I recently got in touch with Vikram to conduct an exclusive interview with him. He is a results oriented leader boasting more than 25 years of global experience. Clutching his envious track record of starting, growing and managing the multinational company’s India operations which combines with his strong grasp of local industry challenges, Vikram has also been highly involved in advising State/ Central Governments on addressing policy paralysis on several occasions. Below is an excerpt of the interview with him, wherein he walks us through his entrepreneurial journey, the unique aspects of Fivetran’s deliverables, and the company’s latest endeavors.
A Master’s in Engineering (VLSI) from Simon Fraser University, Canada and Executive General Management (EGMP) from IIM Bangalore. Tell us about your professional journey after this stellar academic career. What keeps you going?
I started my career as a Software Design Engineer in PMC Sierra, Vancouver Canada. After spending seven years in technical roles in PMC’s Vancouver office, I relocated to Bangalore in 2005 to set up & manage India Development Center
(IDC)for PMC. The India office in fact started from my hotel room in Bangalore, and grew to about 1000 people R & D team over the next 11 years, with offices across Bangalore & Hyderabad. In the process, Microsemi acquired PMC, and later, Microchip acquired Microsemi.
Having experienced everything one possibly could, it was time for me to say goodbye to the corporate world and take the startup plunge. As luck would have it, George Fraser, Founder & CEO of Fivetran, reached out to me at that time in 2016. Fivetran was about a 10 people company, and was looking to scale up. It was a perfect match, as I had the experience of scaling up in India, at the same time, this provided me the opportunity to be part of an infant startup. I started off with incubating the India office in the spare room in my home, and what a dramatic ride of five years it has been since then. We recently raised $565 million at a $5.6 billion valuation, and also acquired HVR for $700 million.
How would you define Fivetran?
Fivetran delivers ready-to-use connectors that automatically adapt as schemas and APIs change, ensuring consistent, reliable access to data. Shaped by the needs of analysts, the platform's fully managed pipelines improve accuracy of data-driven decisions company-wide, by continuously synchronizing data from source applications to any destination, allowing analysts to work with the freshest possible data.
What are the major factors driving data growth in India and how will this change the business landscape?
From internet connections to app downloads, both the volume and the growth of India's digital economy now exceed those of most other countries. Connectivity is enabling access to information for a lot more people. The growth of smartphone penetration in India has directly resulted in a massive increase in the amount of data being generated. The surge of the pandemic accelerated digital transformation for enterprises as well as the public sector to drive better healthcare, public services and speedier Government to Citizens services.
What are the key sectors in India that are driving data transformation?
Technology is critical to propel India’s digital transformation across critical sectors like healthcare, agriculture, education, manufacturing, retail and entertainment. The BFSI sector contributed 34.0 percent to the analytics market size in 2021. This is the largest contribution when the IT and Consulting sectors are excluded. The BFSI sector is followed by Engineering & Manufacturing at 16.9 percent and Retail & e-Commerce at 14.4 percent respectively.
How do Indian companies respond to digital transformation compared to their global counterparts?
New digital ecosystems are already visible, reshaping consumer producer interactions in agriculture, healthcare, retail, logistics, and other sectors. India is establishing itself
Shaped by the needs of analysts, the platform's fully managed pipelines improve accuracy of data-driven decisions company-wide, by continuously synchronizing data from source applications to any destination, allowing analysts to work with the freshest possible data
Having experienced everything one possibly could, it was time for me to say goodbye to the corporate world and take the startup plunge. As luck would have it, George Fraser, Founder & CEO of Fivetran, reached out to me at that time in 2016. Fivetran was about a 10 people company, and was looking to scale up. It was a perfect match, as I had the experience of scaling up in India, at the same time, this provided me the opportunity to be part of an infant startup. I started off with incubating the India office in the spare room in my home, and what a dramatic ride of five years it has been since then. We recently raised $565 million at a $5.6 billion valuation, and also acquired HVR for $700 million.
How would you define Fivetran?
Fivetran delivers ready-to-use connectors that automatically adapt as schemas and APIs change, ensuring consistent, reliable access to data. Shaped by the needs of analysts, the platform's fully managed pipelines improve accuracy of data-driven decisions company-wide, by continuously synchronizing data from source applications to any destination, allowing analysts to work with the freshest possible data.
What are the major factors driving data growth in India and how will this change the business landscape?
From internet connections to app downloads, both the volume and the growth of India's digital economy now exceed those of most other countries. Connectivity is enabling access to information for a lot more people. The growth of smartphone penetration in India has directly resulted in a massive increase in the amount of data being generated. The surge of the pandemic accelerated digital transformation for enterprises as well as the public sector to drive better healthcare, public services and speedier Government to Citizens services.
What are the key sectors in India that are driving data transformation?
Technology is critical to propel India’s digital transformation across critical sectors like healthcare, agriculture, education, manufacturing, retail and entertainment. The BFSI sector contributed 34.0 percent to the analytics market size in 2021. This is the largest contribution when the IT and Consulting sectors are excluded. The BFSI sector is followed by Engineering & Manufacturing at 16.9 percent and Retail & e-Commerce at 14.4 percent respectively.
How do Indian companies respond to digital transformation compared to their global counterparts?
New digital ecosystems are already visible, reshaping consumer producer interactions in agriculture, healthcare, retail, logistics, and other sectors. India is establishing itself
as a major force in the digital economy. India’s consumer digital economy is expected to become a $800 billion market by 2030. India was the world's largest hub for Systems Integrators and today is developing applications around AI, Machine Learning, IoT, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and many more. Next generation technologies that are cloud native are being developed in India. Indian enterprises have embarked on a massive upskilling drive, especially in Cloud technologies.
“Started off with incubating the India office in the spare room in my home, and what a dramatic ride of five years it has been since then. We recently raised $565 million at a $5.6 billion valuation, and also acquired HVR for $700 million”
Going forward, what are the market opportunities that you foresee and which of them do you plan to invest in?
We have been in India since Fivetran's formative stages when we were 10 people globally and incubated our Bangalore office. Since then, we have observed the prodigious growth in the adoption of data-driven cloud technologies in India. As the country transforms rapidly, sectors like banking, retail, ecommerce, insurance and digital entertainment have seen rapid and unchartered growth in data even surpassing the global average. Today as India modernizes, accelerated by the pandemic, the advent of next generation data technology including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, IoT, Virtual and Augmented reality, and the emergence of hyperscale public cloud providers is set to reinforce the country’s trajectory and position in the global market. With the strong market demand fueled by the needs of India’s data-driven organizations, we expect our India business to grow rapidly over the next few years.
In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that have bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and as an entrepreneur?
I have had the opportunity of hiring the best at different levels, and then helping them grow into their career ladders. This was done by creating a culture of trust, mutual respect & transparency, resulting in very low attrition in my organizations over the last 15 years. And in the process I also built great personal friendly relationships with several of my colleagues. It's been like a ‘Happy Family’.
Vikram Labhe, Vice President & Managing Director, Fivetran India
A technologist, entrepreneur and investor, Vikram completed his M.S (VLSI) from Simon Fraser University, Canada and EGMP from IIM Bangalore and possesses 25+ years of IT industry experience spanning across Canada & India and across several leading MNCs and Startups. Clutching his envious track record of starting, growing and managing the multinational company’s India operations which combines with his strong grasp of local industry challenges, Vikram has also been highly involved in advising State/Central Governments on addressing policy paralysis on several occasions.
•Hobbies: Cricket, Hindi Movies & Music
•Favorite Cuisine: Mexican
•Favorite Book: The Psychology of Money
•Favorite Travel Destination: Goa
Awards & Recognition: US Patent, Technical Conference Papers
Fivetran on Spotlight:
Fivetran’s robust engine enables reliable access to analysis ready data. It allows analysts to query any data set at any time. Fivetran automated data integration is built on a fully managed ELT architecture that delivers zero maintenance pipelines and ready-to-query schemas. Additionally, with a seamless five minute, zero configuration setup, the company today offers 150+ fully managed, automated connectors for databases, applications, events, files and functions.
“Started off with incubating the India office in the spare room in my home, and what a dramatic ride of five years it has been since then. We recently raised $565 million at a $5.6 billion valuation, and also acquired HVR for $700 million”
Going forward, what are the market opportunities that you foresee and which of them do you plan to invest in?
We have been in India since Fivetran's formative stages when we were 10 people globally and incubated our Bangalore office. Since then, we have observed the prodigious growth in the adoption of data-driven cloud technologies in India. As the country transforms rapidly, sectors like banking, retail, ecommerce, insurance and digital entertainment have seen rapid and unchartered growth in data even surpassing the global average. Today as India modernizes, accelerated by the pandemic, the advent of next generation data technology including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, IoT, Virtual and Augmented reality, and the emergence of hyperscale public cloud providers is set to reinforce the country’s trajectory and position in the global market. With the strong market demand fueled by the needs of India’s data-driven organizations, we expect our India business to grow rapidly over the next few years.
In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that have bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and as an entrepreneur?
I have had the opportunity of hiring the best at different levels, and then helping them grow into their career ladders. This was done by creating a culture of trust, mutual respect & transparency, resulting in very low attrition in my organizations over the last 15 years. And in the process I also built great personal friendly relationships with several of my colleagues. It's been like a ‘Happy Family’.
Vikram Labhe, Vice President & Managing Director, Fivetran India
A technologist, entrepreneur and investor, Vikram completed his M.S (VLSI) from Simon Fraser University, Canada and EGMP from IIM Bangalore and possesses 25+ years of IT industry experience spanning across Canada & India and across several leading MNCs and Startups. Clutching his envious track record of starting, growing and managing the multinational company’s India operations which combines with his strong grasp of local industry challenges, Vikram has also been highly involved in advising State/Central Governments on addressing policy paralysis on several occasions.
•Hobbies: Cricket, Hindi Movies & Music
•Favorite Cuisine: Mexican
•Favorite Book: The Psychology of Money
•Favorite Travel Destination: Goa
Awards & Recognition: US Patent, Technical Conference Papers
Fivetran on Spotlight:
Fivetran’s robust engine enables reliable access to analysis ready data. It allows analysts to query any data set at any time. Fivetran automated data integration is built on a fully managed ELT architecture that delivers zero maintenance pipelines and ready-to-query schemas. Additionally, with a seamless five minute, zero configuration setup, the company today offers 150+ fully managed, automated connectors for databases, applications, events, files and functions.