Startups that are helping shape India’s SaaS landscape

The SaaS (Software as a Service) sector is one of the most important in the technology industry today. The SaaS phenomenon is global, and India, in particular, is set to take this momentum to the next level. Almost all sectors, from business communication to hospitality to logistics, use SaaS products nowadays.

SaaS at a lower cost brings simplicity to the businesses and enables those to have access to complicated software and IT infrastructure components easily. SaaS provides a fascinating alternative to the standard software installation process in businesses, such as building the server, installing the applications, and configuring them. Instead, SaaS companies help enterprises reside their applications on cloud networks accessed through API or web and work as a rental. The enterprises have the authorization to use the software for a period of time and pay for it. Thus, SaaS simplifies software and hardware deployment, helps in reducing customer acquisition costs, thereby benefiting the businesses. For this reason, SaaS companies are now witnessing high adoption rates among businesses, and even large-scale enterprises prefer the SaaS model.

A Google and KPMG report suggested that the SaaS industry is growing at a  rate of 18%, and  SaaS in SMEs is predicted to grow by 36 % in the next couple of years globally.  Approximately 7,864 SaaS start-ups were founded in India in the last decade, including 10+ unicorns, generating $50-$70 billion in revenue and expected to grow to $1 trillion by 2030.  

Many Indian SaaS companies such as Freshdesk, SirionLabs, Zoho, etc., have expanded globally and are doing well. The concrete success of these companies has left their footprints on the globe for second layer SaaS start-ups to follow and set new milestones in this sector. According to a report by McKinsey, the SaaS industry in India is expected to grow by 5x over the next five years, along with 2x growth in SaaS companies. 

Few Indian SaaS startups who have already expanded globally and are going strong: 

1. Easy Eat, an artificial-intelligence powered food tech startup, is an innovative software platform that enables restaurants to take their businesses online. Conceived in 2019 by Indian entrepreneurs Mohd Wassem, Rhythm Gupta and Abdul Khalid, Easy Eat AI launched its product in Malaysia and is now expanding to more SEA countries. Created by a team of serial entrepreneurs and backed by industry veterans, Easy Eat aims to disrupt the dining industry which is worth $4.2 trillion globally and approximately $140 Bn in South East Asia. Giving back restaurant owners the control of their businesses, Easy Eat let’s restaurants digitize all parts of their businesses, from customer dine-in orders to delivery, and gain AI-based data analytics to increase revenue by upto 30%.

2. ClickPost, India’s largest integrated logistics platform, extended its operations across the MENA market in 2020. Founded by IIT-D graduate Naman Vijay and NIT Trichy graduate Prashant Gupta, ClickPost is providing cutting edge logistics intelligence solutions to help e-commerce businesses in reducing return rates(RTO) by 25%. The company is profitable, processing more than 10 million shipments per month and growing at a rate of 600% YoY. In the MENA region, ClickPost is currently working with Styli (Landmark Group) and Nice. It is also in talks with some of the leading companies in the luxury, apparel, cosmetics and pharma sectors in the region.

3. Onjuno, a neobanking platform designed to help people grow their savings and reach their financial goals faster. OnJuno runs on APIs of its banking partners, fully automated with SaaS tools, built with empathy by a distributed and passionate team of people. Headquartered in India, Singapore and USA, they are empowered to build better banking globally. 

 Overall, Indian SaaS startups have an advantage in the area and are set to be well-positioned to play a leading role in the global SaaS sector in the next decade.