India’s got the next big thing in tech, and it could be worth $1 trillion
Now, Asia’s third largest economy is ready for the next big frontier in tech: Coming up with a new generation of software companies like Zoom or Slack.The Covid-19 pandemic has forced business around the world to make huge investments in digital infrastructure, furthering the influence of companies providing software-as-a-service, or SaaS. Businesses spent an extra $15 billion per week last year on tech as they scrambled to create safe remote working environments, SaaS companies provide web-based applications that take care of everything from how secure the software is to how well it performs. Some of the world’s most well-known SaaS companies include Zoom (“For a Flipkart you need billions of dollars [to grow internationally], but for a Freshwork you need much less capital to go global,” said Mathrubootham, who is also an investor in Postman. This is because e-commerce firms require a ton of money to set up physical operations elsewhere — they have to hire delivery drivers, rent warehouses and buy inventory.Bhatnagar of Sequoia Capital said that Indian software entrepreneurs “mastered” the art of “remote sales” fairly early. “Honestly, in this last two years, the whole world has had to understand how to do better remote sales,” he added.Despite the euphoria, there are some hurdles Indian companies have to overcome before they can deliver on the $1 trillion promise. Indian engineers trained in the IT services industry may find it hard to develop the discipline required to build a product-focused company.In IT services, “you are selling bodies and you say yes to everything the customer says,” said Krishnamoorthy. SaaS companies, on the other hand, have to say no to 99% of [potential] customers, he added. And India’s startup ecosytem is still relatively immature when compared to Silicon Valley. Despite the massive size of some homegrown unicorns, Mathrubootham said that the country does not have a “global tech powerhouse product brand.” But he hoped that future SaaS companies can change that. “It is my personal dream to see India as a product nation,” he added.