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Latent View Analytics — a Chennai-based data analytics company — is betting big on campus hiring as it finds the environment in the lateral job market challenging. The company, whose stock made a stellar debut on Dalal Street in 2021, has made 230 campus offers to freshers, most of whom have already joined its workforce.

Rajan Sethuraman, CEO of Latent View Analytics, said in an interaction with CNBC-TV18 that the the company has addressed the challenges in the lateral market with a strong campus hiring programme.

"We have a fairly healthy bench of 15 percent-plus, which we expect will get deployed in the remainder of this month and early into the next month. But the new people coming on board will also be adding to the mainstream bench strength. So we are comfortable in terms of how it is progressing," he said.

The company, he said, is trying to pivot away from its dependence on lateral hiring. "We crossed a certain threshold in terms of the number of people that we have in the organisation,” he added.

Last month, Latent View, a provider of business analytics, consulting services, data engineering and digital solutions, reported a 40.8 percent jump in net profit to Rs 31.4 crore for the April-June period compared with the corresponding three months a year ago.

Its revenue increased 36.6 percent on year to Rs 120 crore, according to a regulatory filing.

Latent's margin, however, dropped by 180 basis points to 28.9 percent compared with the year-ago period, marred by wage hikes and planned investments.

The shrinking margin comes at a time when IT-related businesses have attracted strong demand but high employee expenses — thanks to high levels of attrition — are eating into their profitability.

The company has indicated a margin in the 26-28 percent range, he said.

Sethuraman also said the company is seeing an overall increase in its deal size.

"We have seen that deal sizes are increasing closer to the $1 million mark and there are at least three deals that are closer to $2 million (each). That is a good sign," he said.

ALSO READ: Latent View says high attrition not a challenge for data analytics business

“The intent is to continue with the investment plan so that we are able to accelerate growth rather than show any higher than guidance margin at this point in time,” the CEO added.

Latent View shares have fallen 29.5 percent so far in 2022, a period in which the Nifty50 has risen 2.4 percent.

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