Today the founder of a company worth Rs 755 crore, 55-year-old Kailash Katkar started his career as an ordinary calculator repairman.
Anyone who knows what an anti-virus is knows about Quick Heal. But not many know about the man behind India’s leading cybersecurity company and his inspiring rags-to-riches story. Today the founder of a company worth Rs 755 crore, 55-year-old Kailash Katkar started his career as an ordinary calculator repairman.
A school dropout, Kailash Katkar picked up his skills and education on the job. Not confident in his abilities to further clear exams, Kailash left studies after Class 10. Without a degree to get a cushy, well-paying job, the future business tycoon started his career as an ordinary technician in a calculator and radio repair shop in 1985. He earned a meagre salary of Rs 400 per month.
In 1991, Kailash opened his own repair shop with an investment of Rs 15,000 in Pune. Around this time, his younger brother Sanjay too wanted to leave education and start working. While Kailash did not have the privilege of higher education, he did not want the same for his brother. He pushed Sanjay to pursue further studies. When the family was unable to afford the younger brother’s Rs 5,000 fee for studying computer science, Kailash pitched in. Little did he know how much this decision would pay off for the brothers.
Meanwhile, Kailash got his first big break when he got the annual maintenance contract for his first big client in New India Insurance. But the future was not electronics repair but computers and Kailash had understood it early in his career.
The making of Quick Heal
Kailash’s first rendezvous with the computer came at 22 years of age when he saw a PC at a bank. Instead of securing his future by investing in a house, Kailash decided to by his first computer from repair shop profits for Rs 50,000.
The software industry was booming at the time. Alongside his repair shop, Kailash founded the CAT Computer Services company in 1993, providing repair and maintenance for computers. Here, Kailash found out that most computers that come to him for repair are infected with virus. Due to this observation, he told his younger brother Sanjay to focus on the field of antivirus. Together, the brothers developed antivirus programs from the repair shop and tested it on the infected computers.
Soon, Katkar brothers shifted focus from hardware repair to antivirus software and launched the first Quick Heal product in 1995 for Rs 700. Making a place for themselves in the market in no time, the brothers closed the hardware business the very next year and jumped full time into conquering the antivirus space.
While Sanjay looked after the technology aspect, Kailash took care of Marketing. The early years were a struggle, even nearing shutdown at one time in 1999. But the brothers turned things around and soon started expanding across India. They changed the name of the company to Quick Heal in 2007. Kailash’s company received a funding of Rs 60 crore from venture capitalist firm Sequoia Capital in 2010. In 2012, Quick Heal ventured into the enterprise segment. The brothers went for a IPO in 2016.
Today, Kailash Katkar is the MD and CEO while Sanjay Katkar is the CTO of the publicly listed Quick Heal Technologies with a net worth of over Rs 755 crore, as on March 2021.
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 "From Rs 400 salary to CEO of Rs 700 crore company: The success story of Quick Heal founder Kailash Katkar")
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