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Human-Centered AI platform and products company Vianai Systems, founded by former <keyword id="6354512" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> CEO <keyword id="6369763" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vishal-Sikka">Vishal Sikka</keyword>, on Thursday announced it has raised $140 million in a Series B round from <keyword id="9240440" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="softbank-vision-fund-2">SoftBank Vision Fund 2</keyword> and other industry players. Vianai said it will use new funds to accelerate the delivery of its human-centered AI platform and products to enterprises worldwide. "In the time to come, AI can play a transformative role in <keyword id="3658" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>n business and Indian society. My dream is to see India's youth as a massive creative force that can use tools, like Vianai's platform, to build human-centered AI systems for India and for the world." said Sikka, Founder and CEO of Vianai. Formed in 2019, Vianai Systems began with $50 million in seed investment. "I am pleased to join Vianai as an advisor. I believe that AI is made by humans, intended to behave by humans, and, ultimately, to impact human lives and human society. Its success depends on how humans and AI work together," said Dr Fei-Fei Li, Co-Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. Other Vianai investors include Jim Davidson (co-Founder of Silver Lake), Henry Kravis and George Roberts (co-founders of <keyword id="6354544" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="kkr">KKR</keyword>), and Jerry Yang (founding partner of AME and co-founder of <keyword id="82402" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Yahoo">Yahoo!</keyword> Inc.). "We are pleased to partner with Dr Sikka and the Vianai team to support their ambition to fulfill AI's promise to drive fundamental digital transformations," said Deep Nishar, Senior Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/battlegrounds-mobile-india-download-link-early-access-registration/articleshow/83597180.cms">Battlegrounds Mobile India beta now available, early access rolling out – download and registration links here</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/oneplus-officially-announces-its-integration-with-oppo/articleshow/83596714.cms">OnePlus officially announced its integration with Oppo — this is what it could mean for users</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/how-learning-foreign-languages-can-help-you-get-better-jobs/articleshow/83601709.cms">Learning foreign languages can help you get better jobs — here’s how</a>

Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka's company Vianai Systems raises $140 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2

Salil Parekh — the eye of the storm that surrounds Infosys

In a huge blow to <keyword id="6354512" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="infosys">Infosys</keyword>, <keyword id="6369763" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="vishal-sikka">Vishal Sikka</keyword> resigned as the MD and CEO of the company. Right now, U B Pravin Rao has been appointed as interim-managing director and chief executive. In his letter to employees, Sikka said he cannot carry out his job as CEO and continue to create value, while also constantly defending against unrelenting, baseless/malicious and increasingly personal attacks. In his letter, Sikka said the journey was difficult and he was proud of how the Infosys board worked, tirelessly, selflessly, these past quarters, despite intense, unfair, and often malicious and personal, criticism, in not only upholding the standards of governance and integrity, but also indeed raising these. Here’s Vishal Sikka's letter to the employees of Infosys: Dear Friends, After a lot of reflection, I have resigned from my position as your MD &amp; CEO effective today. A succession process has been initiated, with Pravin serving as interim MD &amp; CEO, and I will work closely with the Board and management team over the next few months to ensure a smooth transition. In addition, I have agreed to serve as Executive Vice Chairman on the Board to further ensure continuity until the new management is in place. For days, indeed weeks, this decision has weighed on me. I have wrestled the pros and cons, the issues and the counterbalancing arguments. But now, after much thought, and considering the environment of the last few quarters, I am clear in my decision. It is clear to me that despite our successes over the last three years, and the powerful seeds of innovation that we have sown, I cannot carry out my job as CEO and continue to create value, while also constantly defending against unrelenting, baseless/malicious and increasingly personal attacks. In 2014, we started with a very challenging set of conditions, and in the last three years, we have decisively turned things around. Three years ago, I started this journey with a calling, to help reshape the company around innovation and entrepreneurship, to deliver breakthrough value for clients, and to help elevate our work, our standing, our selves, on the basis of a dual strategy, bringing together dualities of renew and new, automation and innovation, people and software, to show a new path forward in a time of unprecedented disruption within the industry and beyond. That time, around and before June 2014, was a difficult time. Our growth rates were low and attrition was high. There was a sense of apprehension all around and I came here to help enable a great transformation as our core business faced intense pricing pressure, and clients looked increasingly to innovative partners to help shape their digital futures. Now, a bit more than three years later, I am happy to see the company doing better in every dimension I can think of. We have grown our revenues, from $2.13B in Q1FY15 to $2.65B this past Q1. We did so while keeping a strong focus on margins, closing this past quarter at 24.1% operating margin, beating some competitors for the first time in many years, and improving against most in our industry. Perhaps more importantly, our revenue per employee has grown for six quarters in a row. Our attrition has fallen, from 23.4% in Q1FY15 to 16.9% this past Q1, and high performer attrition is hovering at or below the single-digit threshold for a while now. We grew our $100M+ clients from 12 when I started, to 19, and increased our large deal wins from ~$1.9B in FY15 to ~$3.5B this past year. We've done all this while improving our overall utilization, to a 10-yr high this past quarter, and an all time high including trainees, while improving our cash reserves, rewarding employees with a new equity plan, and returning cash to our stakeholders. And we have done all this while improving our standing with clients to the highest ever in the 12 years since we've done our client satisfaction survey, and a jump of 22 points in CxO satisfaction. A few days ago, Nitesh, Radha, and I met a client in our office in Palo Alto. It is one of the largest companies in the world - and the CIO was excited and proud about seeing automation come to life in their landscape. Her reaction to seeing many of our innovation projects, as well as our workspace itself, was thoroughly rewarding, and a testament to all we have achieved. She requested us to bring our innovative work and processes to everything we do with her team in a similar space, and even that we help them establish a similar presence for their company in the valley! This is a sentiment I've often heard from clients who've visited our 12,000 sqft space here, that has seen 2200 visits over its ~27 months; clients where we saw much faster than average revenue growth following their visits. So, as I look back on the three years as CEO, what brings me the most joy is the new roads that all of you have traveled, the new frontiers that all of you have enabled. From embracing the new ideas in education, teaching ourselves Design Thinking like no one else ever has, learning AI, new development processes, and more, to applying these learnings via Zero Distance, a one-of-a-kind program of massive grassroots innovation, powered by education, by the amazing Zero Bench, and by your creative confidence. With 16500+ ideas generated, 2200+ of which have already been implemented, ZD is proof that innovation need not be the domain of a chosen few in some elite department, but is the prerogative of us all; proof that the extraordinary within each one of us can indeed be unleashed. To complement this grassroots innovation, we've launched 25+ new services that contributed 8.3% of our revenue last quarter, up from zero in April 2015. And our own new software business is now at 1.6% of revenue. Our AI platform, Nia, now with 160+ scenarios deployed at more than 70 clients, is helping drive both automation within the company, and breakthrough new business scenarios outside. Beyond new services and new software, we've ventured into new horizons, from our startup fund's investments in promising new businesses, to the work we've done in the last 3 years in local hiring around the world, especially in the US, to the exemplary and inspiring work our US foundation has done in bringing computer science education and a culture of making, to the masses. And I am proud of how we have upheld our values, our culture, our integrity, whilst we have gone about this massive transformation. I am proud of how our Board has worked, tirelessly, selflessly, these past quarters, despite intense, unfair, and often malicious and personal, criticism, in not only upholding our standards of governance and integrity, but also indeed raising these. None of our successes would be worthwhile for a moment, if this was not the case. I was, and remain, passionate about the massive transformation opportunity for this company and industry, but we all need to allow the company to move beyond the noise and distractions. Back in May 2014, when I first met many board colleagues, I thought of the road ahead as a road for the next 33 years of this iconic company. For Infosys is more than a company: it is an idea, a dream, a pioneering possibility. Back then I thought, just as I do today, that the time ahead called for a company that could show the way to a digital future, a future where our humanity, amplified by automation and software, would unleash our creativity, our imagination, to construct great worlds of our futures, and would do so powered by education, by our timeless value of learnability. Such an Infosys, whilst staying true to its core, to her values and timeless principles, would shine the light in an altogether different context, a different reality. Such an Infosys would be one where an individual's entrepreneurship, ability to imagine and create, ability to learn, and to amplify themselves with software, with AI, would create a greater whole. Rather than an overarching system enabling the people, the people's agility and imagination would create a greater system. Three years later, we can clearly see that the seeds of this idea have taken root and are growing, into beautiful new flowers and plants, and I see no reason why these cannot continue, and help shape our company's future. For sure this journey has been a difficult one. No one, especially me, thought it would be easy. Transformations are hard to begin with. A massive transformation, of such an iconic institution, with such groundbreaking achievements behind her, would be even tougher, and the exponential rates of change all around us, further amplified by geopolitical matters, would add that much more headwind. But all this was known, and clear, and in many ways added to the calling that I felt. For as the legendary architect Daniel Burnham said, "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir man's blood., But after much contemplation I have decided to leave because the distractions, the very public noise around us, have created an untenable atmosphere. I deeply believe in creating value in an atmosphere of freedom, trust and empowerment. Life is too short to engage in battles of opinions in the public, these add no value, take critical time and focus away from the business, and indeed add more to the noise, to the eardrum buzz, as I wrote to you a few months ago. The founding principle of the strategy I laid out for our renewal was personal empowerment, working in an entrepreneurial environment. I need this for my own work as well. Steve Jobs, in his famous commencement speech at my alma mater, said: "Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other opinions drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become., I now need to move forward, and return to an environment of respect, trust and empowerment, where I can take on new lofty challenges, as can each of you. As Steve Jobs said, I must follow my heart and my intuition, build my buildings, give my givings, and do something else. Over the next weeks and months, I look forward to working with the Board and management to create a smooth transition, and simultaneously staring into the great unknown, and to doing something great, something purposeful, for the times ahead. And also to spend some time with my loved ones. I've been away from home far too often and far too long. As I completed my three years recently, many people asked me if I have any regrets. This question is more apt today and the answer is a clear NO. Not for a second. However difficult the noise of the last several months has been, I wouldn't trade our time together for anything. I would not give up the experience of seeing the gleam in your eyes as you described a new idea, invention, or contribution. You worked on these confidently, without reward, without arrogance, showing exactly the kind of creative confidence that David Kelley talked about in Design Thinking - a wonderful thing to witness. I am deeply grateful for the immense support and love I've received from all of you, from our worthy clients for whom we do our life's work, and by our shareholders across the globe. I am grateful for your trust, confidence and friendship, and am thankful to our team of amazing leaders, who will help lead our company to greatness. To my first Infoscion colleague and trusted friend Ranga, who enabled us to achieve the things we achieved, to the amazing Ravi, a pocket of passion and energy and execution excellence, to the calm and steadfast Mohit, who introduced me to the band of brothers and lived it, day after day, to the larger than life Rajesh, with his great heart and big laugh, to Binod, a veritable bulldozer brother with his broad shoulders and broader smile, to the one of a kind Ramadas, the architect and protector of our magnificent campuses with his indomitable spirit and world-class excellence, to the always smiling Deepak who helped live the strategy, to Krish and the best HR team in the world, especially the extraordinary Richard, Nanju, Shruthi and their amazing team for helping to carry out some of the craziest and most amazing people initiatives, to Inderpreet, a new voice to the team, a voice of calm, strength, integrity and a stability that far belies the little time she's been with us, to Jayesh and our entire finance team for their dedication, their impeccable meticulous integrity and world-class excellence, and especially to my partner, friend, and pillar of strength, Pravin, who carried all the load in the world, with a smile, impeccable integrity and the most amazing grace, and will now lead you to the next phase of our company's growth. To Zaiba, Bala sir, Nagaraju, Hari and many others for making it possible for me to be me and to do my work, to my Palo Alto family: Sanjay, Abdul, Navin, Ritika, Barbara, Tao, Vinod, Shabana, April, Sudhir and others who have stood by me and have given up so much to be a part of this journey and contributed so much to it, and indeed to thousands of Infoscions who've made it all matter. I am thankful to Sesh and our entire board for their unfailing support and confidence in me throughout this journey. Together we have achieved a lot. Even in the midst of all of the distractions, even as the tendency was to return to the familiar, we still managed to persevere and make wonderful progress. We have laid the foundation for the next 30 years of Infosys, and I feel deeply proud to have worked alongside all of you in sowing the seeds that will return this company to the bellwether it once was. As you've all often reminded us, Infosys is no bigger and no smaller than any of us, the people, the Infoscions. You are the ones that will take Infosys to the next 30 years and beyond. As I think about the time ahead, for all of us, I can only see us powered by a freedom from the known, of renewing ourselves to thrive in the time ahead. Each one of you has vindicated my deeply held belief that people are capable of doing more, achieving more, being more, than they ever imagined possible. So, keep pushing yourself to do better at whatever you are good at, but also learning to do things you have never done before, indeed, nobody has ever done before. I know I will be doing the same. The Board, Pravin, and I will communicate additional details as we move forward in this transition, and meanwhile, we continue our work as is. I wish all of you the very best in your journeys ahead.

Vishal Sikka leaves Infosys citing malicious, baseless personal attacks. Read his full letter here

The spat between <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=infosys&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Infosys</a> founders and the board members regarding the pay packages and governance issues is getting uglier. 
 On one hand where <keyword id="6354512" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> founders are raising objections over pay hikes and severance packages of the people at the helm, the board is saying not much has been raised in the salaries of the top management. 
 
Infosys founder <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=narayana+murthy&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">NR Narayana Murthy</a> wrote a letter criticising pay hike given to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=pravin+rao&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Infosys COO Pravin Rao</a>, calling it unjustified. 
 
However, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=vishal+sikka&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka</a> said pay hike is critical to retain top talent. 
 "It is essential for us to see that this revision in his compensation, as with several of our senior leadership team, is focused on making Infosys more competitive, is benchmarked against peers. (It) is critical for us to retain key talent and align the long-term interests of our leadership team with that of our shareholders," said CEO <keyword id="6369763" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vishal-Sikka">Vishal Sikka</keyword>. 
 
Meanwhile, Infosys stated the stock given to Rao has a vesting period of four years. This means the net increase in his compensation for fiscal 2018 will be 1.4% which could go up to 33.4% in the fourth year, assuming similar grants are made in subsequent years. 
 
The company said cash component of Rao's salary, including annual cash bonus, has fallen 10.6% to Rs 4.6 crore from Rs 5.2 crore earlier while the performance-based component, directly linked to company and individual performance, has been increased to 63% from 45% of total compensation. 
 
"I do not see Rao's compensation as a corporate governance issue. That is because it is not a related party transaction. Rao is a professional and not a promoter," said JN Gupta, managing director at Stakeholders Empowerment Services. 
 
The issue will be discussed during the two-day board meeting, which is scheduled for April 12 and 13.

Infosys founders Vs board: Here’s what CEO Vishal Sikka said in COO Pravin Rao's defence

As opposed to founder <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Infosys-founder-Narayana-Murthys-beautiful-letter-to-his-daughter-will-warm-your-heart/articleshow/52017019.cms" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">N R Narayana </a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Infosys-founder-Narayana-Murthys-beautiful-letter-to-his-daughter-will-warm-your-heart/articleshow/52017019.cms" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Murthy</a>'s philosophy of compassionate capitalism to preserve the spirit of social equity, <keyword id="6354512" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> Ltd is now entering a phase where remuneration for senior leadership would go to new levels. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Here-is-how-Vishal-Sikka-has-become-the-man-Infosys-always-wanted/articleshow/51454896.cms" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Vishal Sikka</a>, the first non-founder CEO of Infosys, who was brought in to put the IT giant back on track, has been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Infosys-might-soon-replace-Cognizant-to-become-the-industry-leader/articleshow/52205202.cms" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">doing well for the company</a> ever since then. The fortunes of the $9.5 billion company have now been lifted, despite the fact that it was struggling to grow till two years back. In FY16, Infosys revenue rose 9.1% to $9.5 billion, however, it grew 13.3% in constant currency when currency fluctuations are considered. 
 
For these <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Infosys-Q4-preview-Despite-seasonal-weakness-Y-o-Y-revenue-growth-and-rise-in-net-profit/articleshow/51827282.cms" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">efforts and results</a>, Sikka will take home a new <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Infosys-CEO-Vishal-Sikkas-fat-pay-package-to-get-fatter/articleshow/51133586.cms" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">overall compensation</a> of $11 million from the current fiscal, including a base salary of $1 million, $3 million in variable pay, $2 million in restricted stock units (RSUs) and another $5 million in stock options based on the company’s performance. This compensation revision has coincided with his tenure being extended by another two years up to 2021. 
 
However, this extension was not agreed upon by some of the promoters, who withdrew from voting on this resolution, while also arguing that his new remuneration was way against the company's long held beliefs. 
 
Sikka has also changed the company's senior leadership compensation, elevating three executive vice presidents (EVPs), Sandeep Dadlani, head of Americas, Ravi Kumar, chief delivery officer and Mohit Joshi, head of financial services, as presidents. As per ET sources, the salaries of these new presidents would touch a new high of nearly $2 million including stocks and long-term incentives. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Infosys-salary-hikes/articleshow/51842725.cms" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Infosys employees will get an average salary hike of 6 to 12% this year</a> 
 
Infosys, however, declined from sharing any details of executives' compensation. 
 
<a href="http://media.newindianexpress.com/NarayanaMurthySikka_PTI.jpg/2014/06/14/article2280315.ece/binary/original/NarayanaMurthySikka_PTI.jpg">Image source</a>

You Searched For "Infosys Vishal Sikka" and got 5 results

Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka's company Vianai Systems raises $140 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2

IANS

Salil Parekh — the eye of the storm that surrounds Infosys

Vishal Sikka leaves Infosys citing malicious, baseless personal attacks. Read his full letter here

BI India Bureau

Infosys founders Vs board: Here’s what CEO Vishal Sikka said in COO Pravin Rao's defence

BI India Bureau

With Vishal Sikka’ $11 million remuneration, Narayana Murthy's long held beliefs of compassionate capitalism have gone for a toss

BI India Bureau

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