Sedin Technologies is an IT consulting and software services company headquartered in Chennai, India. Since launching in 2006, Sedin has grown to include clientele in over 25 countries, including Fortune 100 companies.
As the company looked to expand its North American presence to better service new and existing clients on this continent, CFO Mani Kandaraman and CTO Vagmi Mudumbai met with Opportunities NB (ONB) at IBM Think 2018 in Las Vegas. Less than a year later the pair are both living in New Brunswick, preparing to open Sedin’s new Fredericton-based nearshore office.
ONB spoke with them to learn more.
ONB: Why choose New Brunswick for a nearshore location?
Vagmi: We were first approached by ONB’s Mike Rublack at IBM Think last year, and he put forward a great case for why we should be in New Brunswick. About 50 per cent of our revenue comes from the U.S., so it was necessary to expand our presence here. There is a degree of uncertainty around immigration in the U.S. right now, however. We were anxious to get key people from India over here and grow a team around them, and Canada quite frankly looked like the better option.
After a tour of the three largest cities, we found Fredericton particularly attractive due to the University of New Brunswick (UNB). With ONB’s help, we were able to meet with key people from the university, including Dr. Dhirendra Shukla and some of his students.
Mani: We’re a software company, so once we saw what was happening here, the support we’d have on the ground, and the talent coming out of a great school, choosing Fredericton was quite easy.
What can you tell us about the immigration process?
Vagmi: It was reasonably straightforward. At least as far as getting a work permit upon entry. That was so crucial, as we wanted to keep the momentum going. Once we began calling U.S. people from here it gave our clients a lot of confidence in us and our ability to get people nearshore to service them.
Mani: Canada is simply more predictable and safe right now. A lot of people back home with H-1B visas are finding Canada a more attractive option for them and their families. From a business perspective, this has advantages as well. Clients feel more confident in us by knowing we’ll be sticking around here, again thanks to a bit more predictability and stability.
What can you say about ONB and its support for Sedin thus far?
Vagmi: Mike and the rest of ONB’s team have been fantastic. They’ve introduced us to all the right people in the three cities and connected us to the University, and with groups like Venn, ConnexionWorks, and Planet Hatch. End-to-end support has made a huge difference.
Mani: They connected us with attorneys, chartered accountants, real estate people, the entire ecosystem in New Brunswick — we’ve even met the Mayor of Fredericton. As newcomers, it’s amazing to have everything available to us under one roof. It’s given us a lot of confidence and allowed us to hit the ground running here. Again, all this support helped us settle on New Brunswick for this new location.
What types of roles do you expect to create in New Brunswick?
Vagmi: We’ll be recruiting developers and both UX and UI designers. We’ll also be looking for Business Development people that can reach out to clients in both the United States and Canada.
Any final thoughts?
Vagmi: We would like the tech community here to know we are quite active in the open-source space and are looking to contribute to any local open-source projects that may be interesting. Mayor O’Brien told us about the local Civic Tech Tuesday night meetups, so we will be checking those out as well. We’ve done plenty of work in open-source back in India and would love a chance to bring some of that expertise to Fredericton.
Learn more at sedintechnologies.com.
Written by Jason Boies