"This can be as big an opportunity as the IT services industry was in the 90s," said Girish Mathrubootham, CEO of Freshworks, India's best-known SaaS company. It filed for an IPO last month, joining a string of other major Indian tech unicorns that are going public this year.

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Freshworks was founded more than a decade ago in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Like Salesforce, it provides software to help companies manage relations with their customers. It's also India's oldest unicorn in the sector, having raised funds from investors such as Tiger Global and Accel, and has more than 50,000 customers. The company was last valued at $3.5 billion in a 2019 funding round, according to data firm Tracxn.

Other Indian SaaS firms have found traction by focusing on niche businesses. Zenoti, for example, is a unicorn that builds software for the spa and beauty salon industry.

Of India's 10 SaaS unicorns, six reached that milestone in 2020, and investors around the world are paying attention. Last year, investors pumped $1.5 billion into Indian SaaS companies, four times more than in 2018 or 2019, according to the SaaSBoomi report.

"This can be as big an opportunity as the IT services industry was in the 90s," said Girish Mathrubootham, CEO of Freshworks, India's best-known SaaS company. It filed for an IPO last month, joining a string of other major Indian tech unicorns that are going public this year.

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Freshworks was founded more than a decade ago in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Like Salesforce, it provides software to help companies manage relations with their customers. It's also India's oldest unicorn in the sector, having raised funds from investors such as Tiger Global and Accel, and has more than 50,000 customers. The company was last valued at $3.5 billion in a 2019 funding round, according to data firm Tracxn.

Other Indian SaaS firms have found traction by focusing on niche businesses. Zenoti, for example, is a unicorn that builds software for the spa and beauty salon industry.

Of India's 10 SaaS unicorns, six reached that milestone in 2020, and investors around the world are paying attention. Last year, investors pumped $1.5 billion into Indian SaaS companies, four times more than in 2018 or 2019, according to the SaaSBoomi report.