Amidst the many AI annotation, semiconductor and other talents brewing in India’s tier 2 and 3 cities, Jaipur has emerged as a leading hub for AI talent in India, with the highest number of AI job openings among tier-2 cities.
A recent report revealed that 13% of AI job postings from December 2023 to April 2024 were in tier-2 and 3 cities, with Jaipur at the forefront, followed by Indore and South Goa.
Celebal Technologies, a premier software services company based in Jaipur, has played a significant role in developing the local AI talent ecosystem.
With this focus on talent development, the company is helping unfold a quiet IT revolution in the heart of Rajasthan’s capital city.
Celebal, co-founded by Anirudh Kala and Anupam Gupta in 2016, is helping legacy enterprises embrace modern cloud innovations and AI, delivering end-to-end digital transformation to clients across the globe.
In just a few years, the company has achieved remarkable success, growing from its humble beginnings in Jaipur to becoming a global company with a presence in the USA, India, APAC, UAE, Europe, and Canada.
The company now boasts an impressive client base that includes 90% of Fortune 500 companies, a dedicated workforce of over 2000 professionals, and a track record of triple-digit revenue growth.
“Our mission is to make data simple and easy to understand for all organisations,” Kala told AIM in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the recently concluded Data+AI Summit.
“We are committed to providing solutions powered by modern cloud and artificial intelligence that integrate with traditional enterprise software. Our tailor-made solutions help enterprises maximise productivity and improve speed and accuracy,” he added.
Nurturing AI Talent in Tier 2, 3, 4
At the core of Celebal Technologies’ success is its focus on nurturing and empowering talent. The company has grown its workforce from just 300 employees in FY21 to over 2,300 in FY24, achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 105% during this period.
“There is no dearth of talent in this country,” Kala emphasized. “Specifically the fact that there are so many folks who have not had the chance to prove themselves. Sometimes I would meet people who are extremely introverted, but great coders. I have met talented folks from very humble backgrounds.”
Celebal has made it a priority to provide opportunities to individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those from tier 4 and tier 5 towns in India who may not have had access to privileged education.
“We have been training people like those,” Kala said. “I can tell you they are amazing guys. There is no reason for intellect to remain with those who are privileged. It is with everyone.”
By focusing on creating talent rather than just hiring from the market, Celebal Technologies has built a strong foundation for its growth.
The company provides mentorship and training, and shows patience in nurturing its workforce. It recognises that once an individual has learnt the necessary skills, there is no stopping them.
Innovation with Data and AI
Celebal Technologies’ success is also rooted in its unwavering focus on innovation, particularly in the areas of data science and artificial intelligence.
Kala, who has spent over a decade working in AI, has witnessed firsthand how the technology has evolved from a “good to have” to a “must have” for businesses.
“We really focus on data and AI. And now, with data specifically, the kind of customer conversions that we have, I think it is second to none because we have never had such momentum,” Kala beamed.
The company leverages its expertise in AI and data to deliver cutting-edge solutions to its clients, helping them improve business efficiencies and unlock the full potential of their data.
The company’s solutions span across various domains, including predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, inventory forecasting, customer 360, IoT analytics, and more.
Strategic Partnerships and Industry Recognition
Celebal Technologies’ success has been further fueled by its strategic partnerships with industry giants such as Microsoft and Databricks.
The company has been recognised as a Microsoft Gold Partner and crowned Microsoft’s Global Partner of the Year for two consecutive years in 2022 and 2023.
“Winning this award for the first time felt like an incredible achievement but winning it twice in a row is mind boggling,” said Anupam Gupta, co-founder and president of Celebal Technologies.
“This is a validation of our strategy in the domain of SAP innovation on Azure, and Power Platform along with our committed execution of this strategy,” Gupta added.
In addition to its Microsoft accolades, Celebal has also emerged victorious at the Databricks Partner Awards for three consecutive years.
“We firmly believe that the cornerstone of AI innovation lies in robust data foundations. This recognition reflects our unwavering commitment to leveraging data to drive transformative, industry-specific GenAI solutions in production for our clients.
What’s Next?
As the company continues its remarkable journey, it remains focused on its fundamentals and the promise of creating intelligent enterprises. It aims to help organisations with legacy systems and outdated software ecosystems embrace the power of modern cloud platforms and AI.
“Traditional enterprises often carry the baggage of antiquated technology, heavy licensing-based limitations, and scalability challenges,” Gupta explained. “But they also want high levels of data analysis that puts them on par with far younger unicorns and startups.”
Celebal bridges this gap by providing legacy businesses with the right tech stack, platforms, and partnerships to enable their digital transformation.
The company’s long-term vision is to make AI an implicit part of business processes, seamlessly integrating it into the very fabric of organisations.
“Eventually, we want organisations to make AI an implicit part of their processes. For example, if we build a house, we know the pipelines, the plumbing work, right? It has to be there. We don’t think of it building explicitly.
“Could we have a business environment and processes that would have the same concept? It is implicit that we use AI,” Kala said.
While scaling presents its own challenges, Celebal Technologies remains committed to its fundamentals and the potential of each individual to contribute. The company aims to do full justice to each person’s career and ability, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.
“Scaling has its own challenges. I will not shy away from the fact that we have struggled, we are still struggling,” Kala admitted.
“Of course, we are trying to figure out how to cut down that struggle. I think that struggle is going to be there even if we get more and more projects, more and more people. The way to scale is only through focusing on your fundamentals.”
As the company continues to push the boundaries of what is possible with data and AI, it is not just transforming businesses but also shaping the future of the industry, one solution at a time.
“I would say it is not a hype because we are using it,” Kala emphasised, referring to the AI revolution. “It is here to stay. We are seeing things happening. We are seeing things in our daily lives.”
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