Our India growth exceeded expectation; impressed with govt's approach on regulation: Salesforce CEO

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has said the company's growth in the Indian market is "incredible" and exceeded all expectations, and India's approach to regulations also drew praises from the tech billionaire and philanthropist.

Benioff told PTI that Salesforce in India has "radically" expanded its engineering centre. The productivity of employees in India "has far surpassed our wildest imagination", said the top honcho of the enterprise software giant whose revenue in FY23 stood at over $31.4 billion.

On India building a legislative framework for safeguarding tech and digital space, with the recent passage of the data protection bill in Parliament and preparations underway for the Digital India Act that will include AI guardrails, Benioff said he has been very impressed with the approach of the Indian government on regulations.

"I have been extremely impressed with what the government is doing," he said, expressing hope that the approach will continue.

Asked about India's market growth and investment, Benioff said Salesforce's performance in the country has surpassed expectations.

"India's market growth has far exceeded our expectations. Since she (Arundhati Bhattacharya, Salesforce India Chairperson and CEO) joined, we have enjoyed incredible growth, we also radically expanded our engineering centres, the productivity from our employees in India has far surpassed our wildest imaginations," Benioff said on Wednesday, in the backdrop of Salesforce's annual convention, Dreamforce.

It is pertinent to mention here that global tech giants have been significantly ramping up their presence in India, with rapid digitisation, pace of economic growth, and mobile and internet penetration all adding to the market's sheen.

Salesforce currently has over 9,000 employees in India across offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, and Jaipur.

Salesforce's growth in India has been fueled by businesses accelerating adoption of cloud technologies.

Leading Indian companies, such as Air India, HDFC Ltd, Tata CliQ, and Mahindra Ltd, among many others, use Salesforce technologies to connect with their customers.

Customer growth in India is also supported by a Salesforce ecosystem with an established network of partners, over two million Salesforce developers, and more Trailhead (the free online skills platform) users than any market outside the United States.

Earlier this year, Salesforce also announced the expansion of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Hyderabad, significantly strengthening the company's presence in India.