Techcircle SaaS Forum 2015
KEY THEME: Which markets to go for: Global v/s Local; Which segment to build businesses in: B2B v/s B2C
Improving internet & cloud based technology platforms, clubbed with the desire to get rid of expensive yet complicated systems is driving business houses drift towards this silently rising “on- demand software” subscription based delivery model. The young & brilliant Indian SaaS sellers are already creating string of applications for businesses around the world. Besides, the readiness of Indian market in adopting SaaS services has made the India opportunity all the more exciting for entrepreneurs & investors.
The very nature of SaaS businesses to offer customised, enterprise friendly and subscription based products is definitely becoming a win among price sensitive Indian customers. However to get more adoption, recurring revenues and prove sustainable in a longer run, what are the mantras that a growing SaaS companies needs to follow? Due to the explosion of mobile and now IoT devices, are we seeing consumerization happening in the micro businesses? How personalized are the businesses getting? Is the time right to look at mobile first? Which sectors are early SaaS adopters & which are the once that are lagging behind? What is takes to be next billion SaaS company coming out of India?
Aiming to help corporate decision-makers better understand the utility of latest SaaS offerings, help entrepreneurs learn nuances of running a Saas business to understanding what’s driving the large IT players to dive into the nascent Saas market in India, Techcircle is presenting its 4th edition of Techcircle SaaS Forum 2015.
Key topics:
• Why is the time right to invest in Saas businesses?
• Which markets to go for : Global v/s local
• Which segment to build businesses in: B2B or B2C? ; Enterprise or SMEs?
• Growing opportunities in India centric SaaS Businesses: Are SMB’s fostering SaaS transformation in India?
• Is the time right to look at mobile first SaaS solutions?
• Are Smartphones driving consumerisation & personalization of SaaS services?
• SaaS is the next logical evolution for Indian enterprises: Global players or Indian companies to grab the bigger pie?
• Early SaaS adopters v/s Back Benchers - Emerging sectors embracing Saas services
The forum will provide a platform to senior SaaS professionals, top and emerging SaaS companies, innovators, early stage SaaS startps, angel & venture capital investors and potential partners to share best practices and know what is favouring SaaS businesses in India
8:30am to 9:30am
Tea, Networking & Registration
9:30am to 9:35am
Introductory Note
9:35am to 10:20am
Insights I: Why is the time right to invest in SaaS businesses in India?
Hear from leading entrepreneurs & investors on why this is the best time to invest your time, energy, money and resources in building SaaS businesses in India. Know from investor’s perspective on what’s driving them to bet on SaaS businesses in India? Know how big is the opportunity and what are the entrepreneurial opportunities for you to startup?
Nitin Nayar, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus India Private Limited
Salil Godika , Co-founder, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer and Industry Group Head, Happiest Minds Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Avlesh Singh, Co-founder and CEO, WebEngage
Mohan Kumar, Executive Director, Norwest Venture Partners
Klaas Oskam, Managing Director, Signal Hill (Moderator)
10:20am to 10:45am
Keynote Address - How can SaaS transform the industry
Shashank ND, Co-founder & CEO, Practo Technologies
10:45am to 11:10am
Keynote Address - Hits & Misses in Building Capillary
Aneesh Reddy, Co-founder & CEO, Capillary Technologies
11:10am to 11:30am
Tea & Networking Break
11:30am to 12:15pm
Insights II: Which markets to go for: Global v/s local, Enterprise v/s SMEs?
While SaaS as a business model looks lucrative for companies of all sizes & scale and across geographies, one needs to have a laser sharp focus on which markets, segments and product fit would bring in the best results. Listen to leading SaaS experts on how to choose your product market fit, target markets and much more.
Rob Arnold, Chairman, SLICeR Pte. Ltd
Manav Garg, Founder & CEO, Eka Software Solutions
Murli Ravi, Co-founder, Unicorn VC
Saurabh Arora, Founder & CEO, Airwoot
Parag Dhol, Managing Director, Inventus Advisors India(Moderator)
12:15pm to 1:00pm
Insights III: Growing opportunities in India centric SaaS Businesses: Are SME’s fostering SaaS transformation in India?
With 6 million successful SMEs looking forward to embrace technology to help improve their day to day business activities such as accounting, payroll, benefit enrollment, expenses, reporting, are SaaS entrepreneurs focusing on this massive opportunity? If yes what’s the key behind cracking this unique opportunistic Do-it-for-me (DIM) SME & micro-business market? What does it take to help Indian, non tech savvy micro businesses adopt to simplified SaaS services?
Ishwar Sridharan, Co-founder and COO, Exotel Techcom Pvt Ltd
Ketan Kapoor, Co-founder & CEO, Mettl
Manohar Chapalamadugu, Founder & CEO, Agile CRM
Aditya Sanghi, Co-founder & CEO, Hotelogix
Alok Goyal - Partner, Helion Advisors Pvt. Ltd (Moderator)
1:00pm to 1:40pm
Lunch & Networking
1:40pm to 2:25pm
Insights IV: Early SaaS adopters’ v/s Back Benchers - Emerging sectors embracing Saas services
SaaS wave touched across the business landscape in India demonstrating advantages of embracing plug-and-play delivery model with few sectors embracing the saas models in early days. Which are emering sectors now willing to embrace Saas and fuelling the next level of growth? With the emergence of an allied sector enabling large ecommerce businesses besides demand from traditional sectors such as retail, financial services, healthcare amongst others, which other sectors are likely to gain momentum? With Saas opportunity evident in sectors adopting saas models now & early adopters of saas services, will Indian companies grab the larger pie of this market or will large international players will lead the show?
Ambarish Gupta, CEO & Founder, Knowlarity Communications Pvt Ltd
Mridhul Prakash, Co-founder and CEO, BluSynergy
Vijay Sharma, Co-founder & CEO, Belong.co
Anil kumar, Founder & CEO, SmartRx
Sanjay Nath, Co-founder & MD, Blume Venture Advisors Pvt. Ltd.(Moderator)
2:25pm to 2:50pm
Keynote Address - Essentials for building a world -class SaaS company - Product, Usability, Talent & pricing: The act of mastering it right
Bhanu Chopra, Founder & CEO, RateGain
2:50pm to 3:15pm
Investor Talk
Entrepreneurship in India is at an exciting juncture and availability of capital is just one exciting driver to starting up. Hear from a leading investor on: “Top three opportunities, trends & challenges facing SaaS Entrepreneurs.
Ravi Gururaj, Chairman & Co-founder, Frictionless Ventures
3:15pm to 3:35pm
Tea & Networking Break
3:35pm to 4:15pm
Insights V: Is the time right to look at mobile first SaaS solutions? Are Smartphones driving consumerisation & personalization of SaaS services?
Mobile-led consumption of Saas services is posing a big question for Saas entrepreneurs: Is the time right to look at mobile first saas solutions? With every business going mobile first, are Saas services providers also changing their delivery platforms and looking at more mobile friendly preface to their software services? With SaaS services integrating into individuals’ lives & enabling consumers to get things done smartly, are SaaS service providers moving towards consumerization & personalization of Saas services?
T P Pratap, Co-founder & CMO, QwikCilver Solutions Pvt. Ltd
Ashwini Asokan, Co-founder & CEO, Mad Street Den
Karan Gambhir, Industry Head, Technology, Google
Tarun Davda, Director, Matrix Partners (Moderator)
4:15pm to 4:45pm
Techcircle Showcase - Powered by Nasscom 10,000 Startups
A curated platform featuring five innovative companies in the SaaS space who will come on the stage and make presentations on their path-breaking ideas, business models and niche opportunities.
"Signal Hill, named 2014 Boutique Investment Bank of the Year by the Global M&A Network, is a leading independent advisory boutique serving the M&A and private capital raising needs of growth companies. Signal Hill's experienced bankers provide deep domain expertise and an unyielding commitment to clients in our sectors: Internet & Digital Media, Internet Infrastructure, Services and Software. With more than 600 completed transactions and offices in Baltimore, Bangalore, Boston, Mumbai, Nashville, New York, Reston and San Francisco, Signal Hill leverages deep strategic industry and financial sponsor relationships to help our clients achieve Greater Outcomes®". For more information visit www.signalhill.com.
Exotel is one of India’s leading cloud telephony companies. We started in 2011 and since then, over a 1000 customers have built their voice & SMS communication infrastructure on Exotel. We place a very high emphasis on the customer experience & reliability of the platform. We’re a highly tech focused company and are constantly innovating to ensure our customer get nothing but the best from Exotel.
We’re based out of Bangalore and are currently a 70 member team. We are growing at a breakneck speed and are constantly looking for exceptional people to join us.
In a survey conducted by Yourstory, Exotel was picked as one of the top 5 B2B startups to work for in India. We were picked as the “Emerging Company of the Year” for 2015 by the Telecom Leadership Forum. Mashable picked us as one of the 10 Tech Startups to watch out for in India. We have won numerous accolades in such a short span of time.
We hope to enable and be at the forefront of all voice & SMS communication for companies of all sizes in the near future.
Shivakumar Ganesan is the CEO & Co-Founder of Exotel. Ishwar Sridharan is the COO & Co-Founder & Siddharth Ramesh guides the technological developments of the company as the CTO & Co-Founder.
BluSynergy is India’s #1 and only SaaS based Billing, (SMS/Email/Voice) Notification and (online and offline) Payment Collection tool for startups, technology companies, Governmental organizations, NGO, Clubs, Schools, Colleges, Media, infrastructure and others.
LeadSquared is a customer acquisition platform to make your leads travel faster down the sales funnel. You can seamlessly capture leads from all your online and offline sources. Engage and nurture your leads using personalised email and SMS. Get the lead insights you need to manage and sell faster over teams using excel and old school CRM systems.
Deloitte recognised LeadSquared as one of the fastest technology growing companies in India. We are based in Bangalore and have customers in over 20 countries.
As the global leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, Akamai makes the Internet fast, reliable and secure for its customers. The company's advanced web performance, mobile performance, cloud security and media delivery solutions are revolutionizing how businesses optimize consumer, enterprise and entertainment experiences for any device, anywhere. To learn how Akamai solutions and its team of Internet experts are helping businesses move faster forward, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter
As the global leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, Akamai makes the Internet fast, reliable and secure for its customers. The company's advanced web performance, mobile performance, cloud security and media delivery solutions are revolutionizing how businesses optimize consumer, enterprise and entertainment experiences for any device, anywhere. To learn how Akamai solutions and its team of Internet experts are helping businesses move faster forward, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter
10,000 Startups is an ambitious attempt by NASSCOM to scale up the startup ecosystem in India by 10x. 10,000 Startups aims to enable incubation, funding and support for 10,000 technology startups in India over the next ten years.
The program’s vision is to:
• Foster entrepreneurship
• Build entrepreneurial capabilities at scale and
• Strengthen early stage support for tech startups
To meet these objective the program aims to bring together key stakeholders of the ecosystem including startup incubators / accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, startup support groups, mentors and technology corporations.
With 10,000 Start-ups NASSCOM aims to build a vibrant ecosystem for technology entrepreneurship in India.
VCC Events opens up the avenues for participation. Join hands to be a part of India’s largest gathering of alternative investments leaders, industry stakeholders and Asia’s influential limited partners, general partners and marquee advisors. Your chance to actively participate and augment yourself as thought leaders.
Vivanta by Taj, Bangalore
Date: 23 September 2015
Address: Vivanta by Taj - M G Road, Bangalore,
41/3 Mahatma Gandhi Road
Bangalore 560 001 Karnataka, India
Drop us a line and we will call you.
