New Delhi: German software major SAP Tuesday said it would invest $1 billion in India over the next four years having positioned the country among its eight strategic markets for fuelling future growth.

"Markets like India are at an inflexion point when it comes to the adoption of technology by businesses of all shapes and sizes," SAP chief executive Henning Kagermann said in a statement.

"It took us nine years in India to reach the 1,000 customer mark and only one to double it," he said, adding he expected India and China to be the main drivers behind the target of 100,000 global customers over the next four years.

"The unprecedented growth that we are seeing from India is one of the best examples of how our 2010 strategy translates into action."

SAP, which makes business-management software that helps in areas like inventory management and payroll accounting, employs 4,235 people in India and had sales of $134 million during 2006.

Two-thirds of the 30 companies whose stocks go into the sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange are clients of SAP, which now hopes that small and medium enterprises will drive its growth in the country.

"We are adding more than four new customers every working day," said Ranjan Das, SAP's president for the Indian subcontinent. "It's a good time to be here in India."