Businesses in the IT industry are establishing some of the foundations for the future digital economy. The IT industry is India’s most recent sunrise sector, positioning the nation as a leader in software products thanks to powerful businesses, entrepreneurs, and women leaders in the field. We may use the saying “a rising tide lifts all boats” to describe the emerging software-as-a-service (SaaS) market in India. Every cloud software project appears to have been financed, and in just this one industry, numerous unicorns are getting crowned by their excited investors every month. As per forecasts, the number of unicorns across India’s startup industry will surpass 100 this year.
During the first three months of 2022, five SaaS businesses became unicorns—privately valued at $1 billion or more—while startups in other industries have seen significant layoffs. Alongside, numerous SaaS startups are on the “unicorn-soon” list.
Amagi and Uniphore, two of the newest unicorns, are the fruits of their creators’ successful attempts to adjust to the world’s developing conditions. Both had distinct beginnings but transitioned to the SaaS model and are now reaping the rewards.
Others, like Hasura, represent a new wave of Indian founder-led, born-to-the-cloud businesses emerging as “category leaders,” as we say in startup lingo.
As India’s IT sector grew from strength to strength, surviving three US economic recessions in this century alone— no one would have predicted that India’s IT sector would reach $200 billion or that TCS alone would soon be a $50 billion revenue firm.
Moreover, Indian businesses follow digital transformation and IT modernization “to boost or maintain the efficiency and competitiveness of corporate operations.”
Experts agree that almost all firms will become tech companies in the future. And this is one big reason— the SaaS industry in India will have a highly promising future.
The Indian SaaS market is also seeing strong female tech leaders. From Prukalpa Sankar’s data management success and Ashwini Asokan’s AI venture to Shruti Kapoor’s sales intelligence business and Kausambi Manjita’s big vision to seed-stage businesses at Mason are just starting.
Imagine what Icertis, BrowserStack, and Uniphore can accomplish in ten years or more. Icertis is developing AI-based autonomous contract management software, while BrowerStack aims to become the internet’s cloud testing infrastructure.
True, business history today is littered with examples of titans vanishing off the face of the earth. However, Suppose we set aside things that are out of our control for a moment. In that case, it will not come as a surprise what Ritesh Arora (co-founder at BrowserStack), Girish Mathrubootham (founder of FreshBooks), then Tanmai Gopal and Rajoshi Ghosh (founders of Hasura) started and how it developed into a market that made India a country of software products.
The main issue facing the industry is talent. Everyone is actively hiring— among those vying for the same talent pool are SaaS startups, other heavily funded startups, foreign firms like Atlassian and Salesforce with expanding operations in India, large tech firms, and of course, the Indian IT services sector.
The SaaS industry in India now has more funding. According to recent predictions from the venture capital (VC) firm Chiratae and consultant Zinnov, the sector would receive 62 percent more financing this year, reaching $6.5 billion, than it did last year.
Arora and Aggarwal at BrowserStack warn that some entrepreneurs are driving in the wrong direction by money and the quest for instant success. The duo says that in their situation, a different business, sponsored by a Tier-1 VC firm, tried to pay off some of their employees to download and transfer over their central software.
Behind the glitz and cash, business is all about tenacity and fortitude in the face of overwhelming obstacles.
The SaaS slogan at the moment is “Made in India, for the world.” Despite how glamorous that sounds, one unlikeable explanation is that recurring billing in India is difficult for companies. Additionally, most Indian businesses are still averse to shelling out cash for innovative software.
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