Pyxis carves a niche in Financial Software Mart
June 2006, Business Standard

Sticking to its USP of providing software as a service, Pyxis Systems, a Pune-based startup providing end-to-end services in derivatives risk management space is confident of striking it big in the banking, financial services and insurance vertical (BFSI).

Speaking to Business Standard after the company won its first client, a private sector bank, for its newly developed product Riskompass, Pyxis' CEO, Nandlal Bhatkar, said

"The derivatives market is a $5 billion market globally, growing at 22 per cent per year, of which 40-45 per cent is in the US, 30-35 per cent is in Europe and the rest in Asia which is galloping ahead to grow."

Pointing out that less than 5 per cent of the BFSI vertical have a derivatives system, the reason for which, Bhatkar said, is the "unsatisfactory service provided by MNCs and the high cost associated with these systems. A typical deal size for such systems is $1-2 million".

Helping organizations set up, integrate and run the derivatives systems, the company eventually plans to even provide business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing services around the derivatives domain.

Sunil Nikhar, founder and president, Pyxis, said, "We will grow from a 45 people team to 125 people in the next 6-9 months. We will have 5-6 clients in the coming year for our product and within three years we will be a $18-20 million company

On the cards is also setting up offices in the US and UK for which they are in talks with venture capitalists for getting the first round of funding

"We are expecting to get a funding of $1-2 million soon for supporting our expansion plans to the US and UK," said Bhatkar.

Bhatkar, a domain expert, runs a leading derivatives consulting firm Origin Risk Management whose clients include American Express Bank, Reliance Infocomm, State Bank of India, and several others.

Nikhar, a technology expert, who having worked with corporations like IBM Corporation, Matsushita, Sony Corporation, Transamerica and others had setup his own company Ascent Computing Group that got acquired by China dotcom in 2003.