Japanese IT co Solize acquires CSM Software

 Solize Group, a Japanese engineering and consultancy company, has announced the acquisition of India-based CSM Software for an undisclosed amount.

According to people familiar with the development, it is the first complete acquisition of an Indian IT company by a Japanese software company in Karnataka. Tokyo-based Solize Group CEO and President Tatsunori Furukawa said the company will take full ownership of CSM Software and CSM Software USA. CSM Software, headquartered in Bengaluru, is an engineering service outsourcing (ESO) company and provides high technology engineering services globally, mainly in USA and Europe.

In an interaction with DH, CSM Software VP of Marketing and Sales Kirit Sarvaiya said the company serves automobile OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers as well as aerospace industries.
“CSM Group has a speciality in product engineering such as body-in-white, passenger cabin, aircraft structures and fixture, among others. Solize felt that the quality of work actually performed by CSM was above that of others in this space, and so they decided to purchase CSM,” he said.

Sarvaiya also said that the two companies have complementary offerings and a very complementary market presence, that is Solize has offices in Japan, China, and India, while CSM has offices in India, USA, and Europe.

Ramakrishna Narayanaswami, a serial entrepreneur based out of Los Angeles, founded CSM Group in 1992. He also founded CSAR Corporation, which he sold to MSC Software in 1999. CSM Software has around 250 employees and has offices in Chennai, Delhi, and Pune. Its international presence includes the US, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden. Solize Group has been expanding its business in the area of 3D-CAD based product design and, recently with increasing development demand, of MBD (Model Based Development). It has around 1,400 product design engineers for its major clients in the automobile industry.

Earlier, Japanese company Ricoh India acquired Noida-based IT company Momentum Infocare in 2011 and Japan-based CAC Corporation acquired a 51% stake in Accel Frontline (AFL) in 2013.

According to an official involved in the deal, such acquisition of Indian companies will increase in the future.