Indian SaaS market to cross $50 bn in the next 10 years

SaaS (Software as a Service) products market in India is expected to cross USD 50 billion in the next ten years as the segment is set to receive a massive rise in demand from more and more small and medium businesses, according to a report. "In a market with demand fulfilment largely led by US, India's competitive advantages will help Indian SaaS companies see strong growth and create USD 50 billion in value over the next 10 years," says a joint report by Google and Accel Partners released.

The report projects that India's advantage in engineering, inside sales, product management and mobile skillset creates a highly advantageous opportunity for Indian SaaS businesses to be profitable and scale quickly. SaaS will contribute to more than 75 per cent of the public cloud revenues, driving the global SaaS industry to USD 132 billion revenue by 2020, it said. The SaaS products will see adoption by small and medium businesses (SMBs) which are expected to reach USD 76 billion.

Indian startups specifically have the opportunity to grab 8 per cent of this revenue by creating purpose built innovative solutions targeted at SMBs globally, with the demand from US SMBs projected to double and the growing European demand, the report noted. "Cloud computing is one of the top technology investment trends of this decade with venture funding for purpose-built SaaS solution exceeding USD 18 billion in the last four years.

Indian startups have an edge, as mobility is also becoming a key requirement by SMBs for SaaS," Rajan Anandan, VP and managing director, Google Southeast Asia and India, said. "Our startups are already building world class solutions for the mobile first users, this strength combined with easy access to global customer base online will help India become a very strong player in the global SaaS industry," he said.