5 SaaS startups that have withstood Asia’s test of time

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) market valuation in Asia Pacific is set to reach US$4.3 billion by the end of 2015, up from US$380 million in 2008. As SaaS spreads out into customers relationship management, enterprise messaging, HR solutions, and A/B testing, there has been an increase in the number of strong regional SaaS contenders.

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, investments in SaaS solutions are set to increase to US$78 billion by the end of 2016. While there are more businesses entering the space to claim a piece of the treasure for themselves, here’s a list of five startups that began early in building what the industry has become today.

Freshdesk

The startup was co-founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shanmugam Krishnaswamy in Chennai. Freshdesk is a customer support software that integrates communication channels like phone, email, and social networks to let businesses communicate with customers better. This is the first Indian startup to receive Google Capital backing. Between 2014 and 2015, Google Capital, Tiger Global, and Accel Partners invested a total of US$81 million. Freshdesk works on personalizing its product based on its customers’ requirements. It has customer bases in 145 countries and has on-boarded 40,000 customers in the last year.

Wingify

Founded by Paras Chopra in 2009, Wingify’s product Visual Web Optimizer (VWO) is a conversion rate optimization tool and an A/B testing platform. It designs the website in two styles and splits the traffic of the websites between the two versions to find out which one is doing better. The user can tweak, personalize, and optimize their website with minimal IT help through VWO. The changes in the versions of the website, even if it is the font, affect the sales and consequently the growth of a business.

Chopra worked on user on-boarding, usability and getting consistent feedback to improve its product further.

In the 18 months following VWO’s launch, the startup crossed US$1 million in revenue.

In September last year, the bootstrapped startup acquired Concept Feedback, a community of web design and user experience experts to strengthen its platform. Businesses are using Wingify to improve its rate of downloads, signups, and website sales. The startup currently has 4,000 customers using VWO, across 80 countries.

TradeGecko

This Singapore-based startup was co-founded by Cameron Priest, Bradley Priest, and Carl Thompson in 2012. TradeGecko provides inventory management software to businesses, mostly retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers. The startup recently raised US$6.5 million in series A funding from NSI Ventures and Jungle Ventures.

Over the last three years, TradeGecko has acquired 10,000 customers from over 100 countries. TradeGecko’s vision was to supersede enterprise resource planning, another form of inventory management business software. The startup integrated ecommerce websites and financial management software, inluding QuikBooks, to centralize the inventory management service. TradeGecko has tied up with Amazon, Magento, and Shopify, for ecommerce. For example, if a business makes a sale on Amazon, then the inventory list automatically updated.

SignEasy

Hoiio