General Atlantic Plans to Make its 1st Investment in Indian SaaS Firm
General Atlantic, a US private equity group that focuses on investing in and aiding businesses with the potential to be valued at more than $10 billion and potentially $100 billion, plans to make its first investment in an Indian software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm this year.
Sandeep Naik, the firm's managing director for India and Southeast Asia, stated, “we are quite excited about SaaS companies and anticipate it will be a major theme for us in 2022.”
He did not, however, name the companies that could be interested in investing.
He further said, “similar to how IT (information technology) services and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies created value in India over the past couple of decades, we believe SaaS companies will do that at a faster clip in the next decade.”
General Atlantic has made a total investment of $4.5 billion in India to date. Edtech enterprises Byju's and Unacademy, Acko General Insurance, brokerage platform NoBroker, and the National Stock Exchange are among the unicorns in its portfolio. Jio Platforms Ltd and Reliance Retail Ventures were also added to the portfolio in 2020.
Naik, on the other hand, is looking beyond unicorns, or $1 billion-plus firms.
He said, “we are focusing on building the next decacorns and centacorns."
Decacorns are worth more than $10 billion, and centacorns are worth more than $100 billion.
He added, “we are focusing on Bharat—unless you solve the needs of the core of the market, you cannot create a decacorn or a centacorn,"
Byju's, Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail, and the NSE are just a few of General Atlantic's portfolio firms with a market capitalization of over $10 billion.
He said “Indian SaaS companies can create at least $300-500 billion of shareholder value over the next 7-10 years”.
Tiger Global, SoftBank Group, Sequoia Capital, and Accel Partners are among the investors interested in the Indian SaaS market.
According to a Bain & Co. research issued in December, the Indian SaaS ecosystem is fast evolving, with the number of SaaS businesses tripling in the last five years and more than 60 SaaS firms receiving Series C and above investment.
According to the research, investments in Indian SaaS grew to $4.5 billion in 2021, up 170 percent from 2020, with growth driven mostly by an increase in acquisitions worth more than $50 million. According to the research, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital have been among the most active investors in this space.
Naik remarked, “over the last 18 months, the SaaS companies we have seen coming out of India are effectively competing on the global stage with highly innovative, first-of-a-kind solutions. They have some of the highest capital efficiency because software talent in India is significantly more affordable than hiring elsewhere.”
The private equity company is also looking for investments in "inclusion-theme" categories such as direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, healthtech, financial services, and edtech. Naik added, “we are looking at D2C brands as another theme. Digital-first brands are growing on the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) and personal care side."
Sandeep Naik, the firm's managing director for India and Southeast Asia, stated, “we are quite excited about SaaS companies and anticipate it will be a major theme for us in 2022.”
He did not, however, name the companies that could be interested in investing.
He further said, “similar to how IT (information technology) services and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies created value in India over the past couple of decades, we believe SaaS companies will do that at a faster clip in the next decade.”
General Atlantic has made a total investment of $4.5 billion in India to date. Edtech enterprises Byju's and Unacademy, Acko General Insurance, brokerage platform NoBroker, and the National Stock Exchange are among the unicorns in its portfolio. Jio Platforms Ltd and Reliance Retail Ventures were also added to the portfolio in 2020.
Naik, on the other hand, is looking beyond unicorns, or $1 billion-plus firms.
He said, “we are focusing on building the next decacorns and centacorns."
Decacorns are worth more than $10 billion, and centacorns are worth more than $100 billion.
He added, “we are focusing on Bharat—unless you solve the needs of the core of the market, you cannot create a decacorn or a centacorn,"
Byju's, Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail, and the NSE are just a few of General Atlantic's portfolio firms with a market capitalization of over $10 billion.
He said “Indian SaaS companies can create at least $300-500 billion of shareholder value over the next 7-10 years”.
Tiger Global, SoftBank Group, Sequoia Capital, and Accel Partners are among the investors interested in the Indian SaaS market.
According to a Bain & Co. research issued in December, the Indian SaaS ecosystem is fast evolving, with the number of SaaS businesses tripling in the last five years and more than 60 SaaS firms receiving Series C and above investment.
According to the research, investments in Indian SaaS grew to $4.5 billion in 2021, up 170 percent from 2020, with growth driven mostly by an increase in acquisitions worth more than $50 million. According to the research, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital have been among the most active investors in this space.
Naik remarked, “over the last 18 months, the SaaS companies we have seen coming out of India are effectively competing on the global stage with highly innovative, first-of-a-kind solutions. They have some of the highest capital efficiency because software talent in India is significantly more affordable than hiring elsewhere.”
The private equity company is also looking for investments in "inclusion-theme" categories such as direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, healthtech, financial services, and edtech. Naik added, “we are looking at D2C brands as another theme. Digital-first brands are growing on the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) and personal care side."
