Indian heritage SaaS cos poised to reach $18-20 B in revenue by 2022: Report

SaaS (Software as a service) companies founded by Indian entrepreneurs are poised to reach $18-20 billion in revenue, with the potential to capture 7-9 percent share of the global SaaS market by 2022, a report by Bain & Company said on Tuesday.

The 'India SaaS Report 2020', which analysed a wide range of Indian SaaS companies, said four key archetypes of Indian SaaS companies are expected to gain further traction.

This includes SMB-focused SaaS companies like Zoho and Freshworks that target global markets with easy-to-use horizontal offerings and vertical-specific SaaS companies like Locus and Innovaccer that are disrupting underserved verticals like healthcare and logistics.

Also, globally competitive companies in emerging tech such as Postman and Hasura, and India initiators with products tailored for the domestic Indian market like Darwinbox, MyGate and Yellow Messenger are expected to see strong growth.

"With distinct competitive advantages enhanced by a level-playing field around the world, Indian heritage SaaS companies are well poised to reach $18 billion to $20 billion in revenue and capture 7 percent to 9 percent share of the global SaaS market by 2022," the report said.

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It added that companies like Zoho, Freshworks, Druva, and Icertis have already broken through the $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) mark, with a healthy pipeline of companies well placed to follow over the next 12 to 18 months.

"The Indian SaaS landscape is on the cusp of a transformation. We now have a thriving ecosystem of enablers comprised of both domestic and global SaaS investors, over a hundred SaaS angels with four or more investments, incubators and accelerators and SaaS development events and initiatives sponsored by communities such as SaaSBOOMi," Arpan Sheth, Partner and Leader of Bain & Company's Asia-Pacific Technology, Vector and Advanced Analytics practices, said.

Lalit Reddy, Partner and Leader in Bain India's Private Equity and Digital Delivery practices, said, SaaS in India has recently witnessed significant funding traction, surpassing $1.3 billion of annual investment in 2019.

"Horizontal business software was the largest sub-segment, accounting for two-thirds of all SaaS investment and vertical-specific SaaS grew the fastest, albeit on a small base," he added.

Reddy said even amidst COVID-19, SaaS has been a prominent investment theme with a growing share of venture capital (VC) and growth equity (GE) investments. SaaS investments were 15 percent of VC and GE investments in the first half (H1) of 2019 versus 20 percent in H1 2020.