In a major step towards expanding its strategic foothold in the Global Capability Center GCC sector, Hexaware Technologies has acquired SMC Squared in a cash deal valued at 120 million US dollars. The transaction was announced on Thursday, July 17, 2025, through a regulatory filing by Hexaware. This move aims to further enhance Hexaware’s capabilities and market reach in India, where the GCC market is witnessing exponential growth.

Why This Deal Matters

India is becoming the nerve center for global capability centers, and the growth numbers are staggering. According to Hexaware, the GCC market in India is projected to exceed 100 billion dollars by 2030. This makes the acquisition of SMC Squared not just timely but also strategically aligned with the company’s growth vision.

The acquisition aims to provide Hexaware with access to mature GCC frameworks, strong mid-market client relationships, and execution excellence — all of which are vital for capturing a larger slice of the growing digital transformation and outsourcing ecosystem.

Strategic Importance of the GCC Market in India

Over the past decade, Global Capability Centers have evolved from cost-saving offshore hubs into innovation centers that drive product development, R and D, customer experience, and digital strategy for global enterprises.

With India’s deep engineering talent pool, advanced IT infrastructure, and supportive government policies, GCCs are increasingly choosing Indian cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Noida as their base. Many top-tier Fortune 500 companies have already established or are in the process of scaling up their GCCs in India.

Hexaware’s acquisition of SMC Squared is seen as a direct play into this upward trend.

What SMC Squared Brings to the Table

SMC Squared is a specialist in building and managing global capability centers for international clients, especially mid-sized enterprises that seek agility, innovation, and cost optimization.

SMC brings:

• A workforce of approximately 500 employees

• Operational hubs in India, including delivery centers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad

• A proven playbook for setting up and scaling GCCs

• Deep client relationships in the mid-market GCC space

• A culture aligned with governance and execution rigor

This strategic combination enables Hexaware to scale up without starting from scratch. SMC Squared’s plug-and-play operating model helps in accelerating new client onboarding and expands delivery capabilities across digital transformation, AI, automation, and cloud.

Statements from Leadership

Amrinder Singh, President and Head of EMEA and APAC Operations at Hexaware, emphasized that the company’s clients were increasingly looking for GCC partners who offer more than just staffing and infrastructure.

According to him,
With SMC Squared, Hexaware gains delivery credibility, strong governance mechanisms, and scale across core delivery areas. This strengthens our ability to deliver long-term value to enterprises using our proprietary digital agent model.

Hexaware also reaffirmed its commitment to building future-ready delivery ecosystems that integrate human expertise with AI driven digital agents, positioning itself as a next generation IT services company.

How the Deal Aligns With Hexaware’s Strategy

Hexaware has been consistently positioning itself as a tech-first, automation-first, digital-first enterprise partner. The SMC Squared acquisition enables it to:

• Deepen GCC sector expertise

• Enter new mid-sized client segments quickly

• Expand geographic delivery presence across southern India

• Strengthen its human plus digital agent delivery framework

• Reduce time-to-value for new client engagements

More importantly, the deal brings organisational know-how and execution tools that would take years to build organically.

India’s GCC Market – Growth Drivers and Future Outlook

The Indian GCC market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of over 11 percent, driven by:

• High quality digital talent

• Rising digital transformation needs across sectors

• Competitive operating costs

• Geopolitical shifts encouraging nearshoring and offshoring

• Policy support from central and state governments

By 2030, over 3000 active GCCs are expected to be operational in India, covering sectors like BFSI, retail, healthcare, telecom, and tech.

Hexaware’s bold move positions it well to serve this market, particularly in the digital native and digitally transforming mid-market.

Competitive Landscape – Hexaware Strengthens Its Position

In recent years, several major Indian and global IT players have increased their bets on the GCC opportunity.

• Infosys has partnered with US and European banks to set up innovation hubs

• TCS has acquired clients’ captive centers in BFSI and telecom sectors

• Wipro launched GCC-focused business transformation units

• Tech Mahindra launched a CoE for cloud-native GCCs

With this acquisition, Hexaware now joins the top-tier cohort of firms that are not only building software for clients but are also designing, operating, and scaling GCCs end to end.

City-Level Impact – Bengaluru and Hyderabad in Focus

The acquisition brings SMC’s key operational hubs into Hexaware’s fold — specifically, its delivery centers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

These cities are:

• Home to over 50 percent of India’s GCC workforce

• Offering superior infrastructure and talent depth

• Hosting some of the largest tech innovation clusters outside Silicon Valley

Hexaware’s presence in these cities is expected to expand rapidly post-integration, with potential hiring and capability additions in areas like cloud, data engineering, and generative AI.

Digital Agent Driven Model – The Future of Delivery

A core theme in Hexaware’s growth strategy is its human plus digital delivery model. This approach combines:

• Skilled technology professionals

• Digital agents powered by AI and ML

• Proprietary platforms for DevOps, testing, support, and operations

By embedding these tools into client delivery, Hexaware claims to deliver faster time to market, better cost control, and higher service consistency.

With SMC Squared’s mature delivery ecosystem, these capabilities will now reach mid-sized enterprises, opening new revenue streams.

Investor Outlook – Strategic Fit and Value Creation

While Hexaware is a privately held company backed by private equity, this deal signals:

• Strong cash reserves and balance sheet strength

• Continued belief in India’s long term digital transformation story

• A drive to build differentiated delivery models in a crowded IT services market

For investors, the acquisition is a strong strategic fit, and analysts tracking unlisted IT services are likely to see this as a preparation for possible IPO or further private equity exits in future.

Conclusion – A Future Ready GCC Powerhouse in the Making

The acquisition of SMC Squared by Hexaware Technologies marks a strategic leap forward in its quest to dominate the Global Capability Center market in India. With an eye on the 100 billion dollar opportunity by 2030, Hexaware is not just expanding capacity, but reshaping its delivery DNA.

By bringing together execution excellence, people strength, proven governance, and digital-first thinking, Hexaware is building a future-ready enterprise that can serve global clients with agility, scale, and innovation.

With this bold move, the GCC transformation race in India just got more exciting — and Hexaware is well-positioned to be one of its key frontrunners.

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