Ecosystem: Indian SaaS leverages on post-pandemic business needs

Indian SaaS ecosystem is innovating and raking in foreign investment. Post-pandemic, businesses are starting to seek SaaS partners. Big opportunities ahead as the market capitalises on distinguished services.

India’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry is expected to touch the US$1 trillion mark by 2030, bringing with it about half a million new jobs, according to a recent report  by McKinsey & Co. and SaaSBoomi. India is teeming with SaaS startups, 10 being unicorns, or startups valued at US$1 billion, says the report.

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This is clearly a post-pandemic impact with businesses not sparing any expenses when it comes to digitisation. A KPMG survey says businesses showed an extra US$15 billion weekly expense last year on tech as they rushed to set up safe remote working environments.

New Processes Emerge Post-pandemic & Businesses Seek SaaS Partners

Either new processes are emerging to attract the need for SaaS, or existing businesses realise the benefit of partnering with SaaS firms.

For example, looking at the criticality of securing high-quality employees to enhance productivity and profitability, in August, EdTech platform BYJU’S partnered with dotin Inc., a SaaS company that improves recruitment and retention of new and existing talent.

BYJU’S will leverage dotin’s employee assessment technology and expertise to determine optimal candidate alignment.

Either new processes are emerging to attract the need for SaaS, or existing businesses realise the benefit of partnering with SaaS firms

Pravin Prakash, Chief People Officer, Byjus, said, “We’re growing rapidly and are excited to partner with dotin for our hiring needs. Their technology helps in hiring by assessing alignment and by making it easy to deploy through talent life cycle management.”

dotin uses AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to objectively evaluate technical skills, personality traits, culture compatibility, workplace values, and learning styles of individuals. This will help BYJU’S identify the appropriate team members in different roles aligning with BYJU’S core values or traits.

Foreign Markets Showing Interest in Indian SaaS

Foreign markets are taking notice of the burgeoning Indian SaaS ecosystem. In September, FUDR, a F&B focused SaaS platform, was selected in the summer cohort 2021 run by US-based accelerator Expert Dojo.

As part of this, Expert Dojo has also invested in the company. The company raised US$1,40,000 from both Expert Dojo and angel investor Aditya Sanghi.

The three-month accelerator program will help FUDR unlock a global ecosystem of channel partners, investors and prospective customers. This will also give the company a chance to learn and implement global best practices on cash flow management, product, growth and fundraising. In the current cohort, startups from countries like the US, Canada, Italy, Netherlands and Jordan would also be graduating from the program.

Foreign markets are taking notice of the burgeoning Indian SaaS ecosystem

Similarly, Wheebox, an online assessment platform company, has partnered with the University of Kelaniya, a State University in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to conduct its assessments on its learning and assessment application hosted on Moodle.

Wheebox launched a hassle-free solution for modern educators adapting to online methods of cheat-proof testing. The Low-Code/No-Code (LCNC) AI-driven proctoring solution is for all Learning Management System (LMS) companies. The application can be integrated into any existing LMS in one single touch.

The plug-and-play, extension-based integration offers an all-in-one proctoring solution that is safe, secured, and fortified with Microsoft cognitive services; bundled with features such as face tracking, live stream, face recognition, on-demand proctors, 360 degree room scan, object and noise detection, and auto ID card-based authentication for highly reliable and cheat-proof examinations.

It integrated its platform within the University’s Moodle application using LCNC. 13,000 students at the University will undergo the term-end tests using Wheebox’s solutions integrated within the University’s own LMS.

Even on the home front, investors are showing interest. Dresma, global AI/ML powered SaaS visual content production platform for ecommerce, raised US$3 million in seed funding from Kanwal Rekhi-led SVQuad, Inventus Capital Partners, and Thinkuvate.

The Promise of Innovation in Indian SaaS

A look at the Indian SaaS ecosystem shows promise. In September, AppViewX, the machine identity management and application delivery company launched the Next-Gen Machine Identity Automation Platform™, consolidating its security automation solution for certificates, keys, IoT security and SSH access management across multi-cloud environments.

The platform enables microservices and zero-trust with service mesh and is available to all AppViewX users as a service and can also be deployed in the public cloud, private cloud or on-prem environments.

According to the recent Next-Gen Machine Identity Management Report commissioned by AppViewX with Vanson Bourne, 96% of those who have fully implemented Machine Identity Management-as-a-Service (MIMaaS) have full awareness of certificates and keys across their digital assets, compared to 37% of those who have started to implement it, and 28% of those who have not started yet, but plan to.

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Similarly, in October, Newgen Software, a digital transformation platform, launched iBPS V 5.0 SP2, an upgraded version of its low code process automation platform.

This version helps enterprises automate existing business processes using a low-code development methodology.

The company has clients in global Fortune 2000 enterprises, which use iBPS 5.0 to automate business processes such as loan origination, insurance claims processing, e-authorisations, credit approvals, employee onboarding, and exit formalities.

“We are glad to share that with this upgraded version, our customers will be able to further empower their IT teams by enabling rapid development of complex, context-aware, and customer-centric business applications,” said Virender Jeet, CEO, Newgen Software.

Global SaaS Shows Promises Growth in Particular Pockets

Even at a global level, the as-a-service model is showing growth in particular areas, which leads to further future growth through cause and effect.

A September study from Juniper Research revealed that the global value of the communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) market will surpass US$10 billion for the first time next year, increasing from US$8.6 billion in 2021, a growth of 17% year-on-year.

Even at a global level, the as-a-service model is showing growth in particular areas, which leads to further future growth through cause and effect

CPaaS platforms offer a centralised management service for outbound communications, including SMS, OTT business messaging, RCS and voice services.

The research further predicts that with the intention of capitalising on this growth, CPaaS vendors will want to distinguish their services by integrating innovative solutions directly into their service platforms.

Research author Sam Barker commented, “CDPs (customer data platforms) are an important step in creating differentiation in an increasingly saturated CPaaS market. As traffic over rich media channels increases, CDPs will enable brands and enterprises to tailor communications at a user level; creating a compelling and convenient experience for mobile subscribers.”

The report forecasts that the contribution of rich media messaging formats will gain traction, generating CPaaS vendor revenue.