Black Box plans to increase India’s contribution to 10 percent of its business in the coming years, with the revenues of the region potentially duplicating in the near future, said Sanjeev Verma, CEO of Black Box. Business line. By stating that macroconomic deceleration can affect 20-25 percent of the business, Verma expressed confidence in India vertical, talking about the increase in workforce after a center in Bangalore before and using recent financing of the Indian market.
You had the strongest quarterly performance of the FY25 in terms of profits in the fourth quarter with ₹ 1,550 million rupees. What was India’s contribution to this figure?
India’s contribution would be approximately 15 percent. We want to forward ourselves in India as part of our general trip to the construction of $ 2 billion in income. We hope that the contribution of India increases dramatically from the current 6-7 percent to eat 10 percent or more. In that sense, we are investing again in the team, both in the market to go to the market and in our capacity team.
Recently, we add a new installation in Bangalore to support this expansion plan as it happens. We foresee hyper growth in India, according to last year, with almost duplicate income in the coming years, although it remains a small part of our business. Our focus area will remain in large companies, infrastructure, public and private public sectors, as well as government initiatives.
How do you plan to integrate AI agent services?
Every aspect of our infrastructure has some element of AI, agent or other. Our main approach with AI Agentic is in workplaces with a great workforce, so that it can complement or support the last mile works. So, the contact centers, the PPO, the GCC are where we are watching a big game for the agent. We are also looking for associations and developing some of our own IP in this space, as well as from a service point of view.
He also talked about increasing the number of employees to 1,000. How has these plans affected the entry?
Black Box is not directly affected by the replacement of the workforce because or AI, because that is not our work. We do not have a massive workforce, because we make physical infrastructure: connectivity construction, passive infrastructure, networks) that requires physically doing all this by building an airport. So we don’t see that as a challenge and we will continually hire ourselves.
Worldwide, our workforce is 3000, compared to 300,000 for others, so we do not have the same challenge. We are a ‘glocal’ company, thinking worldwide and acting locally. So, we are thinking of adding 400-500 people, which is not really a problem. We are hiring while we talk, and recently we take a new center of excellence in Bengaluru. Around the next 12 months, this installation will be populated. We are planning to add 10-20 percent of the workforce, and Weexpect the growth can absorb that.
Are you increasing your approach to the telecommunications sector?
We will participate. Either a telecommunications or services of the public sector, we are well positioned to support these initiatives. Today, our driving licenses are digitized, passports are due on their way for two months, since everything has changed in the last 20 years. Black Box is suitable for supporting many of these.
Is the macroeconomic deceleration worldwide affecting India’s ambitions in some way?
There is a lot of uncertainty between factors such as currency, rate, geopolitics. However, a large part of our business is the critical mission, which you need to have, so perhaps 20-25 percent of our business can be affected by delays, but a large part of our business is not discretionary, so we are a bit protected if you can. Just in front of them, it is less a matter of ‘yes’ and more about ‘when’ things will change.
You obtained around ₹ 40 million recent funds. What part of this financing does it plan to invest in India?
For India, a quarter of the funds will go largely to the market and ensure that the work capitals are efficient. Half of the funds were supplied by current investors, which are our largest investors and half was of HNI and others. It is largely to have some ammunition for growth, both organically, including India and some inorganic.
What are your plans in the future?
Around the next 5-10 years, we need to invest quickly in infrastructure, because the next generation applications would require it. This investment is real in that, building the fiber, the network. We are not yet doing much for the construction of the dates center in India. I think India has about 800 megawatts, which is the ability of a data center, a hyper center in the United States in a site. During the next 3-5 years, this will change dramatically. If you are looking to pass from where we are more than 250 million dollars in the next 3-4 years, we have to triple the business.
