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The investor Patrick G Ryan also said that Mu Sigma’s Dhiraj Rajaram has a perverse mindset which is attributed to his devotion to Lord Siva, the Destroyer

Patrick G Ryan, Founder of Aon Corp. and an early investor in Big Data firm Mu Sigma, has accused its Founder Dhiraj Rajaram of cheating him of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a Bloomberg report.

Patrick G Ryan

In a lawsuit filed with the Chicago state court, Ryan said that “Mu Sigma downplayed its own growth prospects in a ruse to buy back his investment company’s early stake in Mu Sigma.”

As per this, the incident happened six years ago when Mu Sigma was still in its infancy. The analytics firm and Rajaram, according to Ryan, misled his VC firm Walworth Investments in 2010 to redeem his 17.5 per cent stake in the firm, saying Mu Sigma’s future was bleak. It was when Mu Sigma was actually growing fast, he said in the complaint.

Dhiraj Rajaram, Founder of Mu Sigma

Ryan’s VC firm had invested US$1.5 million in Mu Sigma in 2006. In 2010, Ryan agreed to sell his shares to Rajaram for US$9.3 million after he pressurised him to do so by citing the company’s low prospects. Rajaram also made Ryan believe that Mu Sigma was losing big clients.

Interestingly or rather shockingly, Ryan also said that Rajaram has a perverse mindset which is attributed to his devotion to Lord Siva, the Destroyer (according to the Hindu mythology). Ryan alleged the motivation to hoodwink him partly came from this devotion.

Mu Sigma, however, denied Ryan’s allegations: “We are aware of the filing and believe the allegations to be without merit. We intend to vigorously defend the case, but decline to comment any further.”

Mu Sigma was founded in 2004 by Rajaram, who was earlier a strategy consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The company helps enterprises to institutionalise data-driven decision making and harness Big Data. Mu Sigma solves high-impact business problems in the areas of marketing, risk and supply chain.

In December 2011, Mu Sigma had raised US$108 million, led by PE firm General Atlantic. This was preceded by a US$25 million funding, led by Sequoia Capital.

Mu Sigma is now a member of the Unicorn club. Recently, Rajaram’s wife Ambiga Dhiraj took over as its new CEO.

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