![\"Human,](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132060609,imgsize-1204357,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/132060609.jpg\" "\\"AI-image\\"")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nBENGALURU: The story of Nagarro cofounder Manas Human spans an unlikely arc \u2014 from the tea town of Dibrugarh in Assam and the classrooms of Delhi to the trading floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, where he helped build one of the world\u2019s largest digital engineering companies. Born in Dibrugarh, Human spent part of his childhood in Iraq before moving to Delhi as a teenager. He went on to earn a PhD in supply chain management from IIT Delhi and an MS in manufacturing systems engineering from Stanford University, where he received a fellowship from the Stanford Institute of Manufacturing and Automation. In the 1990s, while in California, Human was fascinated by the world of software. \u201cEverybody spoke the same language. Everybody spoke the language of code,\u201d he recalled. That belief eventually led him and a group of entrepreneurs to combine two small firms in a modest first-floor office and create a new company called Nagarro. The name itself came by chance. Looking for an available internet domain, the founders stumbled upon the word \u201cNagarro\u201d in a novel by author Robert Ludlum. The book described it as \u201cspirits emerging and spirits coming together.\u201d \u201cWe thought it was a real word. Later we found out that it wasn\u2019t. We just liked the idea, took the URL, and that has been our flag for 30 years now,\u201d Human said. The early years were slow and painstaking. It took Nagarro five years to reach $1 million in annual revenue, 10 years to get to $5 million, 15 years to reach $20 million and two decades to cross $150 million. Then came the inflection point. In the following seven years, Nagarro\u2019s revenue surged to nearly $1 billion, making it one of the fastestgrowing digital engineering companies globally. It historically operated under German IT services group Allgeier before being spun off and listed independently in Dec 2020. \u201cWe wanted to build the best engineering outcomes for our clients and work with the world\u2019s best companies,\u201d Human said. \u201cBecause we spent all that effort, we were able to ride that growth when the digital revolution took off. We designed around lean, small teams and highly skilled people, not staffing pyramids.\u201d That philosophy remained intact as Nagarro scaled, with the company continuing to operate through decentralised \u201ctwo-pizza\u201d teams and a nonhierarchical structure that preserved its startup culture. Today, as Persistent Systems seeks to acquire Nagarro in a $1.3-billion transaction, Human says the timing reflects the next shift in technology. Human\u2019s own story, however, extends beyond technology and business. In 2022, at the age of 50, he changed his surname from Fuloria to Human. In a deeply personal essay published on Germany\u2019s Unity Day on LinkedIn, he wrote that identities rooted in caste, religion, nationality and ethnicity were increasingly driving conflict and polarisation. The name change, he said, was a symbolic attempt to affirm a simple belief, \u201cWhatever other identities I may have, I am human first.\u201d As for the next chapter, Human has little doubt about his role. \u201cThe most important thing is not roles or titles. The most important thing is that the baby that you have grown reaches great heights,\u201d he said. \u201cI am very much here.\u201d<\/div>\n