In 1997, Kottikollon started a foundry in Sharjah that became one of the top three foundries in the world before being sold in 2012 for $400m. Using this capital, Kottikollon founded KEF Holdings — incorporated in Singapore and headquartered in DIFC, Dubai — with five business verticals: infrastructure, healthcare, education, metals and investments. The company, which specialises in offsite manufacturing technology, announced revenue of $66m for 2016 and plans to treble it to $254m in 2017. Much of that revenue will be from a $100m manufacturing park in Tamil Nadu, India — the world’s largest and first-of-its-kind fully integrated offsite manufacturing park, which will cater to the infrastructure needs in India and GCC markets.