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Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai are an incomplete list of those who represent India in Silicon Valley. However, within the country, the IT sector is also developing at a rapid pace.
In India, about 4,5 million people are employed in the IT sector. According to analysts from IDC, in 2021 the volume of the Indian IT services market grew by 7,2% compared to the previous year and reached $14,15 billion. And in 2019, Indian technology startups attracted a record $14,5 billion in investments.
According to forecasts, until 2026 the industry will grow annually by 8,9% and reach $21,67 billion Facebook (owned by Meta, recognized as an extremist organization in our country, its activities are prohibited), Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Intel , and other industry giants, together with American and Arab investment funds, are investing in the Indian IT sector and developing cooperation with local corporations. This is facilitated, in particular, by the fact that English is considered one of the official languages in India.
In April 2022, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the creation of the Trade and Technology Council. This is a high-level strategic agreement between India and the EU to address key trade, economic and technological challenges. Initially, this structure was created by the European Union to strengthen relations with the United States. The council will promote cooperation in areas such as 5G adoption, quantum computing, climate modeling, healthcare solutions and green energy.
Digitalization and cloud services
Tata Consultancy Services
This is an Indian multinational company that provides services in the field of information technology, IT consulting and IT solutions for business. Tata Consultancy Services operates in 46 countries.
The TCS iON division cooperates with individual industries as well as with educational institutions. TCS iON provides technologies on the IT as a Service model. For example, the Digital Records solution helps universities implement an end-to-end certification process. The system digitizes student papers, issues and prints diplomas, and performs digital checks. It uses encryption technology to ensure data security.
The company also offers the Digital Campus package, which includes several modules on the digitalization of learning processes. For example, the Student lifecycle management module allows you to digitize student admissions services, tuition fees, class schedules, attendance, exams and assessments, library visits, transportation, and so on. As a result, university staff receive a complete history of the student’s actions on one screen.
Wipro
Another Indian multinational corporation that provides services in the field of information technology, consulting and organization of business processes. It cooperates with such global IT giants as Google, Microsoft, IBM and Oracle.
Together with the IT giant HPE, the company is developing several areas: hybrid clouds, virtualized desktop infrastructure, corporate networking, edge computing, the Internet of things and others. In 2020, they launched a product called Wipro Virtuadesk under the IT as a Service model. It is a platform for creating virtual workplaces based on the HPE GreenLake cloud platform. It includes services for computing (including high-performance), data protection, machine learning, data management, etc. Virtuadesk allows you to use artificial intelligence and IoT applications, and access to all systems becomes around the clock. Services of a virtual workplace are paid upon their use. This allows businesses to accelerate their digital transformation process and move to remote work without large capital investments and the cost of excess capacity.
Hexaware Technologies
It is a next generation IT and consulting service provider. It helps companies automate processes, move them to cloud services and improve customer experience. The company works with businesses in banking, financial services, capital markets, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, retail, education, telecommunications, high technology, travel, transport and logistics.
Hexaware offers rapid deployment of Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Databricks and Snowflake cloud solutions; application support; office digitization solutions; infrastructure management services, etc. It operates in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.
For example, the company is helping Bank of Sydney transform technology operations using artificial intelligence models on the Tensai and Amaze platforms. They allow you to migrate commercial software and databases to open source platforms or services in Microsoft Azure. At the same time, legacy Java/Net applications can be formatted into a modern cloud architecture to bring them to market faster. All this will allow the bank to optimize customer service and promptly introduce new products and services.
E-commerce
Infosys Technologies
This is a company from Bangalore that develops software for e-commerce and telecommunications companies. Infosys has more than 50 offices and development centers around the world, including China, Australia, Czech Republic, Poland, UK, Canada and Japan.
One of the divisions of the company, EdgeVerve, works in the field of artificial intelligence, automation and analytics. It helps businesses achieve digital transformation. For example, the AssistEdge product allows you to plan your automation process, calculate your ROI, and get insights at every step of the process.
Mindtree
It is a multinational company headquartered in Bangalore providing services in the fields of e-commerce, mobile applications, cloud computing, data analytics, enterprise application integration and enterprise resource planning. For example, Mindtree offers an AR color visualizer as an app that supports 80% mobile OS (iOS and Android), 23 different languages, and the app deploys automatically.
In 2019, the company launched the Immersive Aurora Center for Immersive Technology to explore new AR and VR experiences. Mindtree has partnered with global software company PTC to offer Vuforia, an industrial augmented reality solution, among others.
ElasticRun
This is a B2B e-commerce platform from Pune. It helps companies reach customers in remote rural areas through its crowdsourced logistics network. The transaction data generated on the ElasticRun platform also allows financial institutions to find more rural stores as customers for small and medium businesses.
In its latest round of investments, it raised $330 million through SoftBank and Goldman Sachs. The unicorn startup is valued at $1,5 billion.
meesho
It is an Indian social commerce startup. It operates as an online resale platform that allows anyone to start a business without investment. Meesho allows you to trade not only through your website, but also through WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and other social channels. The platform lists products in several categories: clothing, footwear, electronics, home, beauty and health. Meesho offers free shipping and return options for purchases. Basically, it is the Indian alternative to Amazon.
More than 2,6 million resellers across India advertise on Meesho. The value of the startup reached $1,1 billion. Companies such as SoftBank and Facebook invested in it.
Services
OYO Rooms
This startup provides rental services for hotels, houses and residential premises. It operates in 800 cities in 80 countries, including Malaysia, the UAE, China, Brazil, Mexico, the UK, Japan, the US, and others. The company’s investors are SoftBank, Didi, and Airbnb.
OYO Rooms has several services at once: OYO Townhouse or a hotel next door for millennial travelers; OYO Home for renting private houses in India; OYO Vacation Homes for vacation home rentals; SilverKey for business travel; OYO 360 for self-registration of tenants, etc. In May 2022, European Direct Booker announced a deal to acquire OYO, which will be worth about $5,5 million.
Ola
It is an Indian multinational ridesharing company headquartered in Bangalore. It provides several services: booking a taxi in the application or on the website; Ola Fleet service for renting a taxi to partner drivers; Ola Foods for food delivery; Ola Dash for fast delivery of goods; Ola Financial Services for car insurance, car loans and credit cards; Ola Cars for new and used cars. The service’s user base is estimated at 200 million people worldwide, and its network consists of more than 2,5 million partner drivers in 250 cities.
In 2018, Ola entered its first overseas market, Australia, and since 2019 has been operating in the UK.
Fintech and logistics
BharatPe
An Indian fintech startup that allows store owners to implement digital payments using QR codes from any application with a single payment interface – PhonePe, PayTM, Google Pay, BHIM and over 150 others. It is represented in 225 cities and cooperates with more than 8 million sellers. The startup also offers PostPe credit cards with 1% cashback.
In the BharatPe application, you can also pay for services and communications, receive loans and keep track of expenses and income.
BharatPe plans to hold an initial public offering in a year, when the startup’s valuation could reach $40-45 billion.
Delhivery
Indian logistics company headquartered in Gurgaon. It has 21 automated sorting centers, 122 gateways, 93 fulfillment centers, 2521 dropshipping centers and a team of over 86 people. Since its inception, Delhivery has processed over 000 billion transactions. The unicorn startup offers door-to-door and port-to-port delivery services, as well as air freight to and from India.
The startup raised $2022 million in May 310 ahead of its initial public offering. Delhivery was tentatively valued at $4,6 billion.
Education
unacademy
It is an Indian educational platform for students preparing for exams, competitions and advanced training tests. Unacademy offers courses such as UPSC, SSC, NEET, JEE, etc. During the live lectures, students can ask teachers questions, participate in educational quizzes, take notes. Paid subscription users get access to an archive with all lectures that can be viewed through the application on any device. Unacademy also offers some courses for free.
More than 50 million users, thousands of teachers are registered on the platform, and more than two thousand lectures are held on it.
In 2021, Unacademy raised $440 million in funding, raising the unicorn startup’s total valuation to $3,44 billion.