THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR GLOBAL SAAS STARTUPS FROM INDIA

Software as we know it is undergoing constant transformation and currently, it is going through yet another transformation, a disruption led by ‘intelligent’ or ‘AI-first’ software. Several simultaneous inflection points around the availability of data, storage capacity, and computing power, as well as highly sophisticated algorithms are priming AI to drive the next wave of transformation.

AI solutions are fundamentally different from SaaS in their data intensity, services intensity as well as development tools and processes. AI, therefore, will not just be a “feature” in many applications, but will help produce a new class of applications. Estimates suggest that AI infrastructure, applications and services will itself be an over US $800 Billion market in the next ten years.

Adoption of AI will vary across use cases, driven by readiness and risk. Use cases with high readiness and low underlying risk will get adopted the soonest. At the same time, use cases with low readiness and high risk may never go mainstream or may do so in limited, controlled circumstances.

India is well-positioned to be at the forefront of this revolution. Over the last decade, India’s SaaS industry has gone from a ‘step-child’ status to a ‘poster-child’ status, with thirteen entrants in the ‘unicorn’ club. With a large talent base of developers, a thriving SaaS ecosystem, in combination with the increased service intensity inherent to AI, India has the potential of creating more than $500Billion of value over the next decade from AI-led disruption.

To provide perspective on the global opportunity for Indian AI startups and forecast the evolution of enterprise AI adoption, Stellaris Venture Partners and International Finance Corporation have developed this report with inputs from founders, investors, industry leaders, and academia across the ecosystem. The focus of this report is to identify the opportunities presented by AI for Indian startups targeting global markets.