When we launched the inaugural SaaSBoomi awards in 2020, the world was just about waking up to the horrors of the pandemic. The intent of instituting a new award during this grim time was rooted in the hope that it would serve as a rallying point for inspiring all other SaaS startups in India.
As it turned out, the pandemic accelerated the shift towards online and digital services and the world of SaaS emerged more buoyant than ever before. With billions of fresh funding capital chasing ambitious founders looking to dent large markets, we are on the cusp of a new digital order with India definitively establishing itself as one of the most important SaaS hubs of the world.
The second edition of the SaasBoomi Awards is therefore an attempt to recognize and laud companies who are poised to take up important positions in the firmament of this new world order.
Even in this bold new environment, our North Star continues to be an honest and community-driven attempt to recognize exemplary startups, several of whom might not have come to public attention otherwise and celebrate the extraordinary aspirations and efforts of Indian SaaS founders.
The SaaSBoomi Awards Process
As in the previous inaugural edition, the second season of the SaaSBoomi Awards followed a regimented and transparent process.
We finalized eight award categories – based on feedback from the community, we dropped the Moonshot category from the previous edition and replaced it with a new category called “Emerging startup of the year” to recognize nascent startups below $1M in revenue but have achieved phenomenal early traction or have attracted wide praise for an original solution approach. The rest of the categories are the same as the previous year.
Our call for applications received an overwhelming response – we were pleasantly surprised with not just the quantity but also the quality of the applications.
There was a great diversity of companies in the Breakout and Vertical SaaS categories and we saw many early stage companies with great products focusing on PMF, distribution and big rounds of funding in the Emerging startup category. We would have loved to see more companies in the Dev Tools category in the future
From the applicants, we shortlisted a select set of four to six companies per category. The shortlisting was done using an objective process with a scoring system that was based on different parameters and measured on quantitative metrics.
The short-listed companies were evaluated by a high-quality jury:
- Aneesh Reddy, Co-Founder and CEO at Capillary Technologies
- Ankit Sobti, Co-founder & CTO, Postman
- Ashwini Asokan, Founder and CEO at MadStreetDen
- Girish Mathrubootham, Founder and CEO at Freshworks
- Krish Subramanian, Co-founder and CEO at Chargebee
- Manav Garg, Founder and CEO at Eka Software
- Suresh Sambandam, CEO at KissFlow
- Pallav Nadhani, Co-founder and former CEO of FusionCharts
For each category, three jury members with relevant domain expertise or informed opinions were tasked with deliberating upon the shortlisted candidates to decide on the winner.
For two categories, SaaS Startup of the Year and a new surprise category, the entire jury chose the winner.
The Finalists
While the SaaS startup of the year will be announced in the upcoming SaaSBoomi Growth event, we are delighted to announce the finalists for all the other categories.
Breakout SaaS startup of the year
For startups that have achieved phenomenal traction or recognition in the recent past, whether through a paradigm shift or through focused execution.
The shortlisted finalists are:
- SaaS Labs
- Shiprocket
- Exotel
- CleverTap
- Darwinbox
Emerging SaaS Startup of the year
For young SaaS startups that are relatively early in the journey (less than $1m ARR) but have demonstrated promise and potential.
The shortlisted finalists are:
- Aerchain
- BarRaiser
- Rattle
- Credgenics
- Wingman
Bootstrapped SaaS startup of the year
For startups that have scaled without raising any institutional money (over $100K) and only rely on revenue to fund and grow their operations.
The shortlisted finalists are:
- PriceLabs
- Cardinality.ai
- SignDesk
- FieldAssist
- Acqueon
DevTools SaaS Startup of the year
For startups that are building tools, libraries, or systems for the burgeoning developer market, and have received critical acclaim for the same.
The shortlisted finalists are:
- Hevo Data
- SAWO Labs Pvt. Ltd.
- Appknox
- Sn126
Vertical SaaS startup of the year
For startups that play in a vertical domain and have achieved phenomenal traction within that domain, be it in terms of revenue or customers.
The shortlisted finalists are:
- FarEye
- Shiprocket
- Increff
- GoBOLT
- Yellow.ai
We would like to congratulate all the finalists for their successes and achievements. While every shortlisted company is a winner in its own right already, the final winners for each award will be unveiled on 25-26th April during the SaaSBoomi Growth event at Chennai.
We look forward to seeing you there!
You can also check out more here.
