German SaaS major Celonis marks India entry with $100 mn investment plan

The company will set up a 'global centre of excellence' in India with 1,000 employees

German SaaS (software as a service) major Celonis on Monday said it will invest $100 million in India over the next two-three years.

Founded in 2011, the company — currently valued at over $11 billion — aims to set up a ‘global centre of excellence’ in India with 1,000 employees.

“India has 50 of Fortune 2,000 companies and more than 335 companies in the country are valued at over a billion dollars. The combination of these two factors makes the country one of the most attractive markets for process mining software,” said Celonis Founder Bastian Nominacher.

“Every significant process innovation wave, from client server to the internet, to the cloud has gone through the heart of the India business process industry,” he added.

The company also plans to train more than 100,000 consultants, students, and academics in India, as part of its Celonis Academy programme. The programme is part of a global initiative, where Celonis will train more than 1 million experts on process mining and execution management.

The maker of data processing software intends to tie up with information technology (IT) services giants like Wipro, Infosys, and TCS, which can then deploy solutions based on the Celonis platforms in various industries — be it telecom, financial services, retail, or manufacturing.

Celonis will allow IT consultants in India to use its platform for free, without any time barriers, except for the cost that has to be paid to cloud storage providers. However, when a solution, based on the company’s SaaS platform, is deployed at an enterprise, licensing and other costs would have to be paid by the end user.

“India’s market and talent base represents an unparalleled opportunity to capitalise on the global adoption of process mining and execution management at a massive scale,” said Anitha Scaria George, vice-president and head of Celonis India.

IDC estimates that the Indian IT & business services market will grow from $7 billion, in the first half of 2020, to $20 billion in 2025.

“Process mining should be at the core of digital transformation efforts and can play a critical role in helping to achieve greater scale, agility, and business value realisation,” said Amardeep Modi, vice-president, Everest Group.

“Celonis' partners and customers in India will likely benefit by having this new hub to assist, train, and promote best practices for the region. It would also help them tap into India’s large talent base to fulfil the fast-growing demand for process mining skills globally.”