Indian SaaS market set for explosive growth in coming years
Khadim is giving back to the start-up community by sharing his passion, knowledge, and mentorship with aspiring talent for over a decade and a half. He is global executive with over two decades of industry experience driving business growth through product development and cutting-edge innovations. He holds Master’s in Information Technology, IIIT | Bangalore,India.
What would be the impact of the Indian SaaS market growth on the global market?
SaaS's rise has transformed the software industry, as well as the businesses it serves, dramatically over the last decade. SaaS is rapidly becoming the preferred software-delivery model and the preferred alternative to legacy, on-premise applications due to the pace and growth of digital transformation and cloud computing. In recent years, the Indian SaaS industry is now finding its feet as global demand for its offerings reaches new heights. As a result of the transition from on-premise to cloud computing, and growing investor interest, India is set to emerge as a SaaS (software as a service) powerhouse.
The rapid growth of the SaaS industry is attributable to India's unique role in the global market, especially during pandemic, when you can do the majority of go-to-market (GTM) from India. Similarly, we have engineers and domain experts all over the country who are capable of creating software from anywhere in the country. Due to this whole shift to hybrid and digital go-to-market, India has a massive structural advantage in the post-pandemic era. The SaaS industry in India today needs greater cross-industry collaborations, supportive government policies, and investments in deep technologies, if it is to grow exponentially.
India's SaaS industry revenues are expected to grow eight times from $5.3 billion in 2020 to $42.2 billion in 2025, according to a report on 'Indian SaaS Revolution: Rising Trillion Dollar Global Opportunity'. SaaS companies in India are expected to be able to meet 19% of the global SaaS demand by 2025, based on the expected global market size of $400 billion by 2025.
With a thriving software ecosystem and India-built products becoming global brands, as well as an increasingly mature platform to crack cross-border GTM, Indian SaaS will be able to surpass all expectations in 2022.
How do SaaS companies leverage new-age technologies to build enterprise-grade products?
By leveraging the convergence of technologies, SaaS companies are innovating and creating new product segments. With the adoption of new technologies, customer acceptance is easier, and therefore technology is democratized and adopted faster. Consequently, this is good news for start-ups that can develop unique solutions and reach new markets through digital marketing initiatives that are cost-effective. There are more than half a million product managers working on these SaaS products with a customer-centric design approach to deliver enterprise-level products. As an example, ML innovation will enable SaaS-based offerings to become self-improving, offering a level of intelligence and operational efficiency that will propel multiple industries forward.
In order to address very specific pain points in specific industries, niche products and solutions will enter the market as the demand for vertical SaaS solutions continues to trend upward. By 2022, SaaS capabilities that don't require code will increase productivity and bring new players to market faster.
By implementing SaaS, businesses are not only able to adopt new technologies at a lower cost, but can also upgrade their infrastructure on-demand. By purchasing SaaS on the cloud, you can access cloud-based storage or upgrades to the tools you use on a real-time basis. When a service's demand goes down, an organization can cut back on the resources it uses. Due to this two-way scalability, there is a much greater ROI than with conventional on premise systems.
How would the Indian SaaS market growth story meet the talent demand, and what would be the other critical part?
The Indian SaaS industry has created a great deal of employment both inside and outside of India. Over 62000 jobs have been created in India by SaaS companies. This number was over 42000 in 2019. Today, more than 75% of the workforce is technically skilled across cloud, AI/ML, advanced analytics, and project management.
SaaS-specific talent demand is expected to increase in the next five years, creating a talent shortage. By changing university curriculums, offering standardized certification courses, and launching government initiatives for digital employment, India can increase the number of employable graduates. Founders, corporations, and governments need to also reskill the existing talent pool through training, courses, and mentorship programs. In the future, SaaS talent will be in greater demand for key roles in engineering and product management. India's SaaS growth story will be dependent on meeting this talent demand.
In a SaaS firm, growth potential is greater since product development is more robust and technology exposure is greater. Contrary to traditional IT service providers, which does project based services. Besides providing access to state-of-the-art technology, these companies encourage innovation, global reach and allow out-of-the-box thinking among employees.
What would be the upcoming strategies of growth?
The number of companies adopting SaaS solutions for a range of business operations will increase over the next few years, far beyond its original domain of marketingand sales applications. Over the next decade, enterprises will expect solutions to their business problems that are specific to their industry, giving rise to a lot more vertical SaaS.
There is a change in the business landscape. Every day, more SaaS companies emerge, which means competition for new customers is fierce. This is why you should create a growth strategy before launching your product or service. During the next year, SaaS start-ups will mainly focus on monetization, moving into new markets, unbundling of SaaS, product expansion, and AI integrations. Despite vertical SaaS being highly specialized and suitable for only certain categories or products, it is a very effective strategy. For SaaS businesses, it is essential to keep up with each new trend and try to incorporate it into their existing strategies.
At Whatfix, we are creating a new model for the digital adoption of employees and companies alike: empowering users to learn in the way they’re most comfortable, while still using the software tools required for their day-to-day jobs. The companies that we work with have seen incredible upticks in how their new offerings are embraced and rolled out, making them faster and more efficient than ever before. We believe Digital Adoption Platforms will be a standard requirement of all major technology implementations in the very near future.
Whatfix is growing rapidly and is a key component of India's start-up ecosystem. In order to meet the growing demand in the digital adoption space, we will continue to expand our teams. It is important for us to continue to innovate, and we will reinvest in the technology we provide. Whatfix has a unique advantage in that the solutions can be integrated with almost any application. For our product category, we wish to maintain our dominant position in India.
Gartner predicts that the service-based cloud application industry will be worth $143.7 billion by 2022 - a level of growth that will shape SaaS trends in 2022. Share your thoughts on the future of SaaS, with India in focus.
SaaS market in India is growing faster than ever. Considering its prospects, the investor community is also betting on India to become the SaaS hub of the world in the next few years. According to the Hurun Index, India's startup ecosystem is currently among the world's third fastest growing. In the past, SaaS companies in India could only raise early stage funding and needed to look to the US for further rounds; now Seed to IPO can take place in India. Increasingly, India is becoming a rich SaaS market as rapid tech makes its way into consumer and enterprise sectors. Many SaaS companies are now focusing on India and SEA markets and achieving good scale. More SaaS companies are scaling, attracting experienced founders who are becoming angel investors and also acquiring companies.
SaaS companies in India are better at understanding local business conditions than their global counterparts and are leveraging this advantage to gain market share through customisation& implementation. In terms of SaaS use cases that can benefit all the industry verticals globally, we have barely scratched the surface and over time, India can become a global player in this area. According to a report by Chiratae-Zinnov on Indian SaaS revolution 2021, Indian SaaS companies are projected to garner a market share of 19% by 2025.
A report by SaaSBOOMi, titled "Shaping India's SaaS Landscape", indicates that the country has the potential to create nearly half a million new jobs by 2030, thus making India a major player on the global stage in the field of SaaS. The Indian SaaS industry is in a strong position to become a prominent industry contributing meaningfully to both India's GDP and employment growth.
What would be the impact of the Indian SaaS market growth on the global market?
SaaS's rise has transformed the software industry, as well as the businesses it serves, dramatically over the last decade. SaaS is rapidly becoming the preferred software-delivery model and the preferred alternative to legacy, on-premise applications due to the pace and growth of digital transformation and cloud computing. In recent years, the Indian SaaS industry is now finding its feet as global demand for its offerings reaches new heights. As a result of the transition from on-premise to cloud computing, and growing investor interest, India is set to emerge as a SaaS (software as a service) powerhouse.
The rapid growth of the SaaS industry is attributable to India's unique role in the global market, especially during pandemic, when you can do the majority of go-to-market (GTM) from India. Similarly, we have engineers and domain experts all over the country who are capable of creating software from anywhere in the country. Due to this whole shift to hybrid and digital go-to-market, India has a massive structural advantage in the post-pandemic era. The SaaS industry in India today needs greater cross-industry collaborations, supportive government policies, and investments in deep technologies, if it is to grow exponentially.
India's SaaS industry revenues are expected to grow eight times from $5.3 billion in 2020 to $42.2 billion in 2025, according to a report on 'Indian SaaS Revolution: Rising Trillion Dollar Global Opportunity'. SaaS companies in India are expected to be able to meet 19% of the global SaaS demand by 2025, based on the expected global market size of $400 billion by 2025.
With a thriving software ecosystem and India-built products becoming global brands, as well as an increasingly mature platform to crack cross-border GTM, Indian SaaS will be able to surpass all expectations in 2022.
How do SaaS companies leverage new-age technologies to build enterprise-grade products?
By leveraging the convergence of technologies, SaaS companies are innovating and creating new product segments. With the adoption of new technologies, customer acceptance is easier, and therefore technology is democratized and adopted faster. Consequently, this is good news for start-ups that can develop unique solutions and reach new markets through digital marketing initiatives that are cost-effective. There are more than half a million product managers working on these SaaS products with a customer-centric design approach to deliver enterprise-level products. As an example, ML innovation will enable SaaS-based offerings to become self-improving, offering a level of intelligence and operational efficiency that will propel multiple industries forward.
In order to address very specific pain points in specific industries, niche products and solutions will enter the market as the demand for vertical SaaS solutions continues to trend upward. By 2022, SaaS capabilities that don't require code will increase productivity and bring new players to market faster.
By implementing SaaS, businesses are not only able to adopt new technologies at a lower cost, but can also upgrade their infrastructure on-demand. By purchasing SaaS on the cloud, you can access cloud-based storage or upgrades to the tools you use on a real-time basis. When a service's demand goes down, an organization can cut back on the resources it uses. Due to this two-way scalability, there is a much greater ROI than with conventional on premise systems.
How would the Indian SaaS market growth story meet the talent demand, and what would be the other critical part?
The Indian SaaS industry has created a great deal of employment both inside and outside of India. Over 62000 jobs have been created in India by SaaS companies. This number was over 42000 in 2019. Today, more than 75% of the workforce is technically skilled across cloud, AI/ML, advanced analytics, and project management.
SaaS-specific talent demand is expected to increase in the next five years, creating a talent shortage. By changing university curriculums, offering standardized certification courses, and launching government initiatives for digital employment, India can increase the number of employable graduates. Founders, corporations, and governments need to also reskill the existing talent pool through training, courses, and mentorship programs. In the future, SaaS talent will be in greater demand for key roles in engineering and product management. India's SaaS growth story will be dependent on meeting this talent demand.
In a SaaS firm, growth potential is greater since product development is more robust and technology exposure is greater. Contrary to traditional IT service providers, which does project based services. Besides providing access to state-of-the-art technology, these companies encourage innovation, global reach and allow out-of-the-box thinking among employees.
What would be the upcoming strategies of growth?
The number of companies adopting SaaS solutions for a range of business operations will increase over the next few years, far beyond its original domain of marketingand sales applications. Over the next decade, enterprises will expect solutions to their business problems that are specific to their industry, giving rise to a lot more vertical SaaS.
There is a change in the business landscape. Every day, more SaaS companies emerge, which means competition for new customers is fierce. This is why you should create a growth strategy before launching your product or service. During the next year, SaaS start-ups will mainly focus on monetization, moving into new markets, unbundling of SaaS, product expansion, and AI integrations. Despite vertical SaaS being highly specialized and suitable for only certain categories or products, it is a very effective strategy. For SaaS businesses, it is essential to keep up with each new trend and try to incorporate it into their existing strategies.
At Whatfix, we are creating a new model for the digital adoption of employees and companies alike: empowering users to learn in the way they’re most comfortable, while still using the software tools required for their day-to-day jobs. The companies that we work with have seen incredible upticks in how their new offerings are embraced and rolled out, making them faster and more efficient than ever before. We believe Digital Adoption Platforms will be a standard requirement of all major technology implementations in the very near future.
Whatfix is growing rapidly and is a key component of India's start-up ecosystem. In order to meet the growing demand in the digital adoption space, we will continue to expand our teams. It is important for us to continue to innovate, and we will reinvest in the technology we provide. Whatfix has a unique advantage in that the solutions can be integrated with almost any application. For our product category, we wish to maintain our dominant position in India.
Gartner predicts that the service-based cloud application industry will be worth $143.7 billion by 2022 - a level of growth that will shape SaaS trends in 2022. Share your thoughts on the future of SaaS, with India in focus.
SaaS market in India is growing faster than ever. Considering its prospects, the investor community is also betting on India to become the SaaS hub of the world in the next few years. According to the Hurun Index, India's startup ecosystem is currently among the world's third fastest growing. In the past, SaaS companies in India could only raise early stage funding and needed to look to the US for further rounds; now Seed to IPO can take place in India. Increasingly, India is becoming a rich SaaS market as rapid tech makes its way into consumer and enterprise sectors. Many SaaS companies are now focusing on India and SEA markets and achieving good scale. More SaaS companies are scaling, attracting experienced founders who are becoming angel investors and also acquiring companies.
SaaS companies in India are better at understanding local business conditions than their global counterparts and are leveraging this advantage to gain market share through customisation& implementation. In terms of SaaS use cases that can benefit all the industry verticals globally, we have barely scratched the surface and over time, India can become a global player in this area. According to a report by Chiratae-Zinnov on Indian SaaS revolution 2021, Indian SaaS companies are projected to garner a market share of 19% by 2025.
A report by SaaSBOOMi, titled "Shaping India's SaaS Landscape", indicates that the country has the potential to create nearly half a million new jobs by 2030, thus making India a major player on the global stage in the field of SaaS. The Indian SaaS industry is in a strong position to become a prominent industry contributing meaningfully to both India's GDP and employment growth.
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