Indian unicorn Mu Sigma puts divorce mess behind, Dhiraj Rajaram takes over as CEO

Data analytics company Mu Sigma is one of India’s non-ecommerce unicorns. With top backers like General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Investments, and MasterCard, who pumped in around US$178 million, the company is valued over US$1 billion.

But it’s been in the news for the wrong reasons in the last few months. A few senior executives quit the company; Mu Sigma’s husband-and-wife team – founder Dhiraj Rajaram and CEO Ambiga Subramanian – divorced, and there was much talk of an internal power struggle between Ambiga and Dhiraj, the chairman of the company.

Today, it moves on to a new chapter with Ambiga moving out of the company. Dhiraj took over as the CEO of Mu Sigma. He is also the chairman of the company.

“Ambiga has agreed to support me in continuing to build my dream and will continue to be on our board. It is good to finally put all distractions behind,” Dhiraj said in a press conference today in Bangalore.

Ambiga’s shareholdings will transfer to Dhiraj, and the financial terms between them will be mutually worked upon as their personal family matter, the company announced. Both Ambiga and Dhiraj owned around 24 percent shares in the company.

Dhiraj, who was working with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, founded Mu Sigma in 2004. Ambiga, who was an engineer with Motorola, joined the startup as a director in 2007. She replaced Dhiraj as CEO in February 2016. Following their divorce, there were talks about Ambiga and Mu Sigma’s largest investor General Atlantic trying to sell their stakes in the Chicago-headquartered company.

“We have built a great company over the last 11 years. Due to personal circumstances, it is time for me to move on from the management team of the company and do something different. All rumors about me starting a competitive firm are untrue. While there is a lot of interest in the market to invest into a promising and profitable company like Mu Sigma, I have agreed to support Dhiraj’s interest to purchase my shares and get a controlling stake that will allow him to fulfill his vision,” Ambiga shared in a statement released by Mu Sigma.

Ambiga wasn’t present at the conference today.

See: What happens when the two people running a unicorn go through a divorce

(Reporting credits: Kylee McIntyre.)