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NASSCOM provides a Product LaunchPAD for Startups
By siliconindia
Bangalore: India is emerging as a software product hub globally and generates $2 billion revenue from 2,400 product firms. Several startups are evolving with new and brilliant product ideas and needs a platform to launch them. National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) intends to provide a platform to 10 such startups through a two-day NASSCOM Product Conclave 2011 scheduled to be held on November 9 and 10 at the Vivanta by Taj, Yashwantpur, Bangalore.
In a pre-event press conference, the 10 participants; Pawaa Software, QuickoLabs, Persistent Systems, Imaginate, Srijan Technologies, Conwerge Web Services, Semgel Technologies, Openweb Labs, Ozonetel Systems and NRich Software; launched their products and services. The theme for this year summit is "Force@Work" that provides a perspective of the various internal and external forces that dynamically influence product businesses. The event will provide entrepreneurs a forum to discuss these factors and find solutions that will help them accelerate their software product business growth.
The SMB sector in India is aimed to double by 2020 and contribute 30 percent in the global growth of the sector and the software products landscape will be driving India's global competitiveness. Sharad Sharma, Chair, NASSCOM Product Conclave, says, "India is a huge market for small cars, may it be manufactured by a domestic company or a global one. Also, India has a large market for Telecom sector, but in both the cases, we failed to create domestic players in the sector. In the past one year, we have seen a heightened activity in the Indian software product ecosystem. New ventures, healthy market capitalization and a move to cater to the domestic market are propelling rapid evolution of the next wave of growth for software products. The event is our endeavor to bring together the software product ecosystem to understand the ever-evolving landscape, identify the next set of challenges and collectively work towards overcoming them to continue the growth momentum of the sector."
The past five years has seen the emergence of new consumer segments for products such as SMBs and Government. The adaptation curve can be divided into four segment; B2B, B2C, B2b and B2G. Small enterprises use startup products across both core processes and non-core processes. Also, the government sector is using Indian products for local governance and for information management across public sector units. The picture of the tier II and tier III cities also change variably and has doubled in the last three years with over 330 product companies based in these areas. The availability of skilled talent, disruptive technologies, sources of funds and strong industry support are driving the market.
Sharma added, "Indian software product business has recorded an impressive revenue growth of 22 percent over the last five years. NASSCOM data indicates that over 1100 software product startups have emerged in the last five years and we tend to focus on such startups through this event to evangelize the product opportunity for the country, showcase new innovations and build collaboration." The key focus areas for startups include mobility, SMBs, E-Commerce and Education. The startups are focusing on serving the large SMB market and are leveraging cloud and web based technologies to widen their customer reach. When it comes to funding, software, internet and mobile industry accounts for almost 66 percent of total VC investments in India. The investment community comprises of VCs, Angel Investor, and various state and national government schemes that are now in place to provide funding.
The startups are focusing on localized, Indian specific solutions to resolve the pain points of the Indian consumers and they can leverage the entire consumer base and their necessity to build a strong market, domestically or globally.
NASSCOM is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPO industries in India. It is a global trade body with more than 1300 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM's membership base constitutes over 95 percent of the industry revenues in India and employs over 2.32 million professionals.
