Over the last 15 years, India has witnessed a surge in the number of software as a service (SaaS) companies, surpassing 10,000 and still growing as cloud-based solutions become increasingly prevalent. With over ten companies achieving over $100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and an additional 50 companies achieving $20 million in ARR, the country’s SaaS industry is a testament to innovation. 

However, the next hurdle confronting India's SaaS entities is scaling efficiently. Accel and BCG have partnered to launch ‘Lean Scaling: A SaaS Founder's Handbook’ to address this. 

With actionable insights and best practices from 15 Indian SaaS companies, including Amagi, Eka, Chargebee, Whatfix and Zenoti, the handbook aims to be a resource for ambitious founders and operators looking to achieve efficient growth. SaaS entrepreneurs will find insights within its pages across four pillars: sales and marketing, pricing strategies, channel partnerships, and product and engineering excellence. 

A global venture capital firm, Accel has been investing in India for over a decade. Some of the start-ups it has backed include Acko, Blackbuck, BrowserStack, Chargebee, CultFit, FalconX, Infra.Market, Moglix, Spinny, Swiggy, UrbanCompany and Zetwerk.

Shekhar Kirani, partner at Accel, noted that there are secular shifts happening in the SaaS industry, with changes in customer buying behaviour and advances in AI. “At such a time it is critical for CXOs to have tight controls on product and sales effectiveness. There is a goldmine of highly practical knowledge siloed within the Indian SaaS community. We spoke to some of the largest Indian SaaS companies to collate and share this knowledge,” he stated.

Shaleen Sinha, managing director at BCG, adds in the current environment, there is a very high emphasis on scaling while pushing on profitability. It is an incredibly tough job, especially in a market where new logo acquisitions have been tougher. This entails focusing on levers like account expansion, churn management, pricing and product effectiveness, which is where this report tries to mine insights across some of the leading SaaS companies.

Sreyssha George, partner at BCG, corroborates, “Over the last 15 years, the Indian SaaS ecosystem has come a long way, but now founders have to navigate a tricky landscape in order to scale meaningfully. SaaS companies' ability to scale in the current environment will require doubling down on efficiency by managing churn, getting the best out of pricing, and broadening channels to get to the right customers faster.”