Kovai.co, an enterprise software and B2B SaaS company based out of Coimbatore, India, and London, today announced the appointment of Andrew Cloke as the chief operating officer (COO).

Cloke, who has a strong background in working across cross-functional teams throughout his 34-year-long career, will ensure that Kovai.co has the appropriate systems, processes, policies, and procedures in place.

He will also help in preparing and communicating budgets for various departments and helping them manage costs to stay in line with the agreed plan.

Cloke will be working out of the UK office.

“For a role such as this, challenges are aplenty, they are also normal in a fast-growing business such as Kovai.co. Though I will work from the UK office, I plan to make regular trips to India since my first visit in August was a very rewarding experience. It's a privilege to be part of the Kovai.co family,” said Cloke speaking about the nature of this role. 

In 2008, Cloke joined Fidelity International, where he met the founder and CEO of Kovai.co, Saravana Kumar, who was also working with Fidelity Investments then. Though Cloke was in the IT department, most of his work was with finance (budgeting, forecasting, cost control) tax (R&D tax credit claims, transfer pricing, VAT, corporate tcompliance) and commercial (para legal, commercial disputes, procurement, and supplier management).

“Since I knew Andrew from our days at Fidelity, I am confident that bringing him onboard was a great decision. His focus and expert knowledge in the industry has been exemplary. As we were looking to strengthen our leadership team at Kovai.co, Andrew was the logical choice since he would help us maintain momentum and growth and build appropriate policies to keep them in place. I am pleased to welcome him into this new role,” said Saravana Kumar, founder and CEO of Kovai.co.