We believe the discussion about India’s technology industry – whether in government circles, the media or in Silicon Valley – overlooks India’s B2B software product companies which sell globally as well as into India. Instead, there is a lot of discussion about IT Services companies and E-commerce players.
When there is discussion about B2B software products, it lacks insights into product types, target markets, scaling strategies, perception of Indian vendors in India and abroad as well as the vibrant start-up ecosystem that has emerged around B2B software companies from India. These insights are important because a strong Indian B2B software product industry has the potential to drive tens of thousands of high-value jobs, enable Indian manufacturing and services companies to be globally competitive, drive large amounts of export-driven foreign exchange earnings for India as well as create billions of dollars of value for founders and investors.
We would like to shine a spotlight on these Indian B2B software products companies through the India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B), which we are launching today. The index tracks the thirty most valuable B2B software product companies headquartered in India and companies headquartered elsewhere in the world where cofounders are in India right from the creation of the company onwards.
Powering Real-Time Decisions with Continuous Data Streams
Top 30 Indian B2B Software Product Companies Valued at $6.2 Billion and Growing - Oct '14 Edition
1. iSPIRT Launches
India Software Products Industry Index – B2B
(iSPIxB2B)
Top 30 Indian B2B Software Product Companies
Valued at $6.2 Billion, and Growing
Oct ‘14 Edition
(Online discussion at http://bit.ly/ispix )
Contact the iSPIx team at ispix@ispirt.in with any questions, comments or
suggestions for other companies to consider for the next edition of the index
Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable – www.ispirt.in
2. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
2
Executive Summary
We believe the discussion about India’s technology industry – whether in government circles, the
media or in Silicon Valley – overlooks India’s B2B software product companies which sell globally as
well as into India. Instead, there is a lot of discussion about IT Services companies and E-commerce
players.
When there is discussion about B2B software products, it lacks insights into product types, target
markets, scaling strategies, perception of Indian vendors in India and abroad as well as the vibrant
start-up ecosystem that has emerged around B2B software companies from India. These insights
are important because a strong Indian B2B software product industry has the potential to drive
tens of thousands of high-value jobs, enable Indian manufacturing and services companies to be
globally competitive, drive large amounts of export-driven foreign exchange earnings for India as
well as create billions of dollars of value for founders and investors.
We would like to shine a spotlight on these Indian B2B software products
companies through the India Software Products Industry Index – B2B
(iSPIxB2B), which we are launching today. The index tracks the thirty most
valuable B2B software product companies headquartered in India and
companies headquartered elsewhere in the world where cofounders are in
India right from the creation of the company onwards.
To drive a focused discussion, we have chosen to include companies
that sell software to businesses on a license or subscription basis or where software drives a
differentiated B2B service such as a B2B exchange or advertising network. There are both business
applications and enabling technology companies in the top 30 list - the enabling technology
companies are in infrastructure software, tools and advertising technologies. We have chosen
to leave out B2C companies and certain B2B segments driven by software such as payments
technologies (fintech) and mobile value-added services (MVAS), each of which has developed fairly
vibrant eco-systems in India.
For the first time, there is now an objective source of data derived from company-specific metrics
about this segment of the market. Somewhat surprisingly, the data suggests that the B2B software
product industry has been growing nicely outside of the spotlight - the enterprise value of the top
30 companies is $6.2 billion (₹37,500 crores) which is higher than we would have imagined before
starting out on this effort. The top 30 companies employ over 18,000 people.
On a historical note, the B2B software product sector in India has been developing since the 1980s.
The index is currently dominated in terms of value by companies created in the 1990s and 2000s
that have generally not raised early-stage venture capital. From 2006 onwards the pace of creation
of B2B software companies has accelerated with the ability to sell globally through the Internet
and early-stage venture capital. Over time, we expect companies in the list to be displaced by
companies started since 2006.
3. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
The nature of the largest B2B software companies has changed from 1980s to now.
66 The market has gone from people-driven organizations, many of which have $100k (₹60 lacs)
per employee enterprise valuations, to technology-driven organizations, many of which are
edging closer to $1M (or ₹6 crore) per employee enterprise valuations – in line with what we
see in Silicon Valley.
66 The more recent valuable companies in B2B software are tending toward horizontal solutions
rather than vertical industry focused solutions in areas such as banking and retail.
66 Startups in B2B software products are moving from India-centric to globally-focused
organizations. Much of this is companies that started with initial sets of clients in India, then
went global.
66 For those companies started pre-2006 (50% of the list), they were generally bootstrapped
and about 40% of these companies have got growth capital into them now but the majority
remain completely bootstrapped. These companies are mainly domiciled in India.
66 For those companies started post-2006 (50% of the list), they are generally venture-backed
and about 73% have got early-stage venture capital into them now – the majority by far are
not bootstrapped. 50% are domiciled in the US or Singapore.
There is a healthy mix of verticalized solutions versus horizontal solutions with about 37% of the
companies being horizontal and the rest selling into verticals such as financial services, retail, media
and travel.
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4. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
37% are bootstrapped although most of the bootstrapped companies were started in the 1990s
and 2000s and most of the institutionally-funded companies got growth financing, rather than
early-stage venture capital financing.
Just over 50% provide end-user business applications in segments such as CRM, trading,
collaboration, business intelligence and banking. About 20% are advertising technology companies
and rest are providing enabling technology in infrastructure and tools, including segments such as
security, identity management, developer tools and analytics.
4
5. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
Nearly 80% of the companies have global customer bases – the ones that have remained India-focused
are exploiting large India-specific opportunities such as the large SME base, burgeoning
ecommerce infrastructure needs, rapid growth of organized chains in retail, healthcare etc.
About 70% of the companies are domiciled in India. However, this masks a significant shift since
2009 where a majority of Indian B2B software companies have started incorporating in the US and
Singapore.
5
6. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
A related stat is around the headquarter locations. 27% of the top 30 companies are headquartered
in Bangalore and 20% in the National Capital Region (NCR) which includes New Delhi, Gurgaon and
NOIDA, with the remainder in other cities of India as well as Singapore and Silicon Valley.
What is not in this index is a whole slew of 200+ companies. Many of these started in the 1990s
and 2000s and have failed to scale meaningfully, whether because of lack of channels, lack of large
customers in India or regionally-focused offerings with market size limitations.
What does the future hold? This index represents but a snapshot of where the market is now. Many
of the companies started since 2009 are growing fast off of a small base but are not yet big enough
to be included in this index. We expect more such companies to grow big and start to appear in the
index in the next 12-24 months.
Over time, we expect the index to start representing more horizontal and globally-focused B2B
software companies, many of which we expect to be cloud/SaaS oriented with an equal split
between applications and infrastructure & tools. We also expect the creation of more India-centric
applications software businesses that leverage the proliferation of smartphones in enterprises and
SMBs as well as other India-centric problems.
Putting all this together, we expect the value of the top 30 Indian B2B software product companies
to expand well beyond $6.2 billion (₹37,500 crores) into the tens of billions as they participate in the
$500 billion (₹30,00,000 crores) global market for enterprise technologies. We expect companies
6
7. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
that have reached scale through bootstrapping to continue to remain bootstrapped. We expect
value to be crystallized through IPOs on the Indian stock exchanges for profitable, market-leading
companies as well as US and European stock exchanges for higher-growth companies
that have reached revenue scale but may or may not be profitable. We also expect acquisitions
by US, European and Indian companies to increase as Indian companies increasingly reach scale
especially in horizontal applications, infrastructure and tools – well beyond the historical pace of
exits that we have had with companies such as iFlex, Little Eye Labs and the like.
We will publish an updated iSPIxB2B index every six months. In the meantime, please participate
in the discussion around these findings at the ProductNation blog.
7
8. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
Appendix
The index is tracked in US Dollars and Indian Rupees. The index indicates the change in the sum
total of the valuation figures of the top 30 companies starting at number of 100. We are also
tracking the aggregate employee base of all top 30 companies combined.
iSPIxB2B Index Value Date
iSPIxB2B – USD 100 $6.2 Billion 31 Oct 2014
iSPIxB2B – INR 100 ₹37,500 Crores 31 Oct 2014
Employee Base 100 18,250 31 Oct 2014
Note: Please refer to the Index Calculation Section for detailed notes on calculations
8
iSPIxB2B Tracker
Top 30 Companies
Based on the data collected, the top 30 companies in alphabetical order are as follows:
9. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
Top 30 Companies
Detailed Information about the top 30 companies:
9
Sl. No. Company Name Profile
1 Accelerite (Persistent
Systems)
Description: Accelerite provides industry leading Endpoint
Management, Recovery as a Service, and Mobile Operator Location
Solutions.
CEO & Co-founder: Nara Rajagopalan
HQ location: Silicon Valley
URL: www.accelerite.com
2 AdNear Description: AdNear is the leading location intelligence platform
that leverages location and context to power data driven marketing for
advertisers. The company’s data platform is built on top of proprietary
technology giving us the strength of location awareness without the need
of GPS or operator assistance.
CEO & Founder: Anil Mathews
HQ location: Singapore
URL: www.adnear.com
3 Capillary Technologies Description: Capillary offers Customer Engagement Management
solutions that enable retail marketers to manage customer data, gain
insights & personalize engagement
CEO and Co-founder: Aneesh Reddy
HQ location: Singapore
URL: www.capillarytech.com
4 Druva Software Description: Druva offers integrated enterprise online backup, secure
file sharing and data analytics for protection and governance of endpoint
data.
CEO and Co-founder: Jaspreet Singh
HQ location: Silicon Valley
URL: www.druva.com
5 Eka Software Solutions Description: Eka is the global leader in providing Smart Commodity
Management software solutions. Eka’s analytics-driven, end-to-end Smart
Commodity Management platform enables companies to efficiently and
profitably meet the challenges of complex and volatile markets.
CEO & Founder: Manav Garg
HQ location: Bangalore
URL: www.ekaplus.com
10. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
Top 30 Companies
Detailed Information about the top 30 companies:
Sl. No. Company Name Profile
6 Freshdesk Description: Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support software that
lets you support customers through traditional channels like phone and
email, social channels like Facebook and Twitter, and your own branded
community
CEO and Founder: Girish Mathrubootham
HQ location: Chennai
URL: www.freshdesk.com
7 IBS Software Services Description: IBS is a solution provider offering a variety of different
software products for global airlines such as airline reservation, cargo
revenue accounting, tour booking, crew and hotel management systems.
Founder & Executive Chairman: V K Mathews
CEO: Rajiv Shah
HQ location: Kerala
URL: www.ibsplc.com
8 Ilantus Technologies Description: ILANTUS works in the Identity and Access Management
(IAM) security domain with a focus on enabling companies to leverage
in the rapidly converging hybrid environment of technologies - cloud,
enterprise, BYOD.
CEO and President: Binod Singh
HQ location: Bangalore
URL: www.ilantus.com
9 Indian Energy Exchange Description: Indian Energy Exchange Ltd. (IEX) is India’s premier power
trading platform.
CEO: S. N. Goel.
HQ location: NCR
URL: www.iexindia.com
10 Infrasoft Tech Description: InfrasoftTech is a software products, solutions and services
provider focused on Banking, Financial Services & Insurance sector.
Group MD: Hanuman Tripathi
CEO: Rajesh Mirjankar
HQ location: Mumbai
URL: www.infrasofttech.com
10
11. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
Top 30 Companies
Detailed Information about the top 30 companies:
Sl. No. Company Name Profile
11 Kayako Description: Kayako offers Help Desk Software and Customer Service
Software to Improve customer satisfaction and increase sales, both as
SaaS & On-Premise
CEO and Founder: Varun Shoor
HQ location: London
URL: www.kayako.com
12 Komli Media Description: Komli Media is Asia Pacific’s leading digital media tech-nology
platform. Its digital advertising technologies enable marketers to
reach, acquire and foster audiences and publishers to maximize their
revenues.
CEO and Founder: Amar Goel
HQ location: Mumbai
URL: www.komli.com
13 Manthan Systems Description: Manthan is the world’s leading producer of Advanced Ana-lytics,
Business Intelligence, Optimization and Analytics-driven Execution
solutions for Retailers and Consumer Goods Manufacturers.
CEO and Founder: Atul Jalan
HQ location: Bangalore
URL: www.manthan.com
11
14 Newgen Software Tech-nologies
Description: Newgen Software is a leading provider of Business Process
Management (BPM), Enterprise Content Management (ECM), CCM, DMS,
Workflow and Process Automation.
Managing Director: Diwakar Nigam
HQ location: NCR
URL: www.newgensoft.com
15 Nucleus Software Description: Global Banking Software Product and Solutions Providers
focused in the areas of Retail Banking, Corporate Banking, Lending Soft-ware,
Lending Solution, Cash Management, Transaction Banking, Integrat-ed
Transaction Banking & Mobility Solution
CEO and Founder: Vishnu R. Dusad
HQ location: NCR
URL: www.nucleussoftware.com
12. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
Top 30 Companies
Detailed Information about the top 30 companies:
Sl. No. Company Name Profile
16 Ozone Media Solutions Description: Ozone Media is a Global Advertising Technology Company
focused on online advertising.
CEO and Founder: Kiran Gopinath
HQ location: Bangalore
URL: www.ozonemedia.com
17 Pubmatic Description: PubMatic is a global technology platform that powers the
programmatic advertising strategy of leading publishers and premium
brands.
CEO and Co-founder: Rajeev Goel
HQ location: Silicon Valley
URL: www.pubmatic.com
18 Qubole Description: Qubole is a Big Data as a Service (BDaas) Platform Running
on Leading Cloud Offerings Like AWS the makes Fast Data Analysis simple
for all Users.
CEO and Co-founder: Ashish Thusoo
HQ location: Silicon Valley
URL: www.qubole.com
19 Quick Heal Technologies Description: Quick Heal Technologies provides IT security solutions for
your PC, Mac, Mobile, Tablet, and Enterprise Network.
CEO: Kailash Katkar
HQ location: Pune
URL: www.quickheal.com
20 Ramco Systems Description: Ramco Systems offers next-generation enterprise solutions
across cloud, mobile and tablets that render transformation of business
in real-time.
CEO: Virender Aggarwal
HQ location: Chennai
URL: www.ramco.com
12
13. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
Detailed Information about the top 30 companies:
13
Top 30 Companies
Sl. No. Company Name Profile
21 Rategain Description: RateGain offers hotel channel management, hotel channel
manager and promotion management to travel and hospitality industry.
CEO and Founder: Bhanu Chopra
HQ location: NCR
URL: www.rategain.com
22 Real Image Media Tech-nologies
Description: Real Image offers media technology solutions. It has its
presence throughout India and over 14 countries through the Qube
Cinema product.
CEO: Arvind Ranganathan
HQ location: Chennai
URL: www.realimage.com
23 SunTec Business Solu-tions
Description: SunTec Business Solutions is the leading provider of
revenue management and business assurance solutions to banks,
financial institutions and communications services companies
President, CEO and Founder: K Nanda Kumar
HQ location: Kerala
URL: www.suntecgroup.com
24 SVG Media Description: SVG Media is a leading Indian Digital Media Network with 45
Million Unique Visitors in India.
CEO and Founder: Manish Vij
HQ location: NCR
URL: www.svgmedia.in
25 Tally Description: Tally Solutions is a market and technology leader in ERP
software solutions.
MD and Founder: Bharat Goenka
HQ location: Bangalore
URL: www.tallysolutions.com
14. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
Detailed Information about the top 30 companies:
14
Top 30 Companies
Sl. No. Company Name Profile
26 Vizury Description: Vizury helps marketers secure customers through
dynamic creative retargeting and display solutions
CEO and co-founder: Chetan Kulkarni
HQ location: Bangalore
URL: www.vizury.com
27 Vserv Description: Vserv is a leading mobile marketing platform
provider
CEO and co-founder: Dippak Khurana
HQ location: Mumbai
URL: www.vserv.com
28 Wingify Description: Wingify offers testing and optimization products to
websites and apps.
CEO and Founder: Paras Chopra
HQ location: NCR
URL: www.wingify.com
29 Wooqer Description: Wooqer helps people to structure work and measure
results without sms, emails, phonecalls and spreadsheets.
CEO and Founder: Vishal Purohit
HQ location: Bangalore
URL: www.wooqer.com
30 Zoho Corporation Description: Zoho offers a suite of online web applications
geared towards increasing your productivity and offering easy
collaboration. Zoho’s online office tools include a word processor,
spreadsheet application, presentation tool, hosted wiki, notebook,
CRM, Database software etc.
CEO and Founder: Sridhar Vembu
HQ location: Silicon Valley
URL: www.zoho.com
Please refer to the following sections for the detailed description on the methodology followed in selecting these companies.
15. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
The index indicates the change in the sum total of the valuation figures of the top 30 companies
starting at number of 100. The index will be reported in USD and INR.
iSPIxB2B = India Software Products Industry Index - B2B
Vn = Valuation of Company n in INR/USD
n = component number
66 The index is a price return index(data to calculate total return is not collected)
66 Component number : 30
66 Component Selection and Criteria: Described in the following section
66 Review Frequency: As needed
66 Calculation Frequency: 6 months
66 Date of first calculation: 31 October 2014
66 the company sells software to businesses on a license or subscription basis OR
66 the company provides a B2B service driven through a differentiated software offering AND
66 the company was founded in India or had co-founders who were based in India and else-where
15
Index Calculation
Other feature of the index:
Company Selection
More than 350 Indian B2B software product companies were identified. The list was compiled from
various internal and external sources. We contacted over 100 companies and gathered data on
a substantial majority of these companies either directly from the companies, their investors or
public markets exchanges. The goal was to identify the top 30 companies in terms of valuation and
use the valuation number to compute the index as described in the previous section.
We included companies that met the following criteria:
simultaneously
A few very prominent companies are absent from the list as they declined to participate in the
SPIxB2B project.
16. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
The following key data was collected from the companies, institutional investors or public sources:
66 Company Name, Profile, Contact Details
66 Headquarters location, Website URL, Founding Year, Legal Domicile, Employee Count
66 Financial Data
Valuation in USD and INR for Institutionally funded companies
Revenues in USD and INR for non-funded companies
Public market valuation in INR for public companies.
We came across three types of companies and arrived at their market valuation correspondingly:
66 Public companies - we used the latest market valuation data from Moneycontrol.com.
66 Recently venture-backed companies - we used the post-money valuation of their latest
financing if the financing was in the past year.
66 Bootstrapped companies or venture-backed companies financing over a year ago - we
derived a valuation using revenue multiples. Revenue multiples by sector were obtained from
reputable investment banks and were adjusted based on differing growth rates. In a couple
of cases, we did not obtain financial data from a company which we thought important to
include – in this case, we used publicly available data that may be dated.
We understand that company valuation in general, and this methodology specifically, will not result
in exact results. However, we believe that the results are directionally correct and generally in the
right ball park. We believe these results are of enough quality to support an educated discussion
as well as drive decisions from strategic partners and governments regarding the Indian software
product industry.
16
Data Collected
Valuation Methodology
Confidentiality
In general, data has been provided by companies and their investors. No company-specific data
obtained for the purposes of this index have been published nor will be published. We are only
publishing aggregate data. We respect the sensitivity of this data.
17. India Software Products Industry Index – B2B (iSPIxB2B)
17
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the companies and their investors for sharing data with us. In addition
the authors of this report would like to acknowledge the following people for their contribution and
support to the project.
66 Professor Sharique Hasan, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
66 Professor Rishi Krishnan, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
66 Klaas Oskam, Managing Director, Signal Hill
66 The volunteers at iSPIRT
Contact the iSPIx team at ispix@ispirt.in with any questions, comments or suggestions for other
companies to consider for the next edition of the index.