In a nutshell, software as a service (SaaS) can be described as a centrally hosted software licensing and delivery model typically offered on a subscription basis. SaaS products can come in many forms: from business tools to cloud services and everything in between. SaaS offers a valuable alternative to on-premises hardware and software deployment with all the available solutions, providing its own slew of unique advantages, especially as the workplace norm is becoming increasingly segregated and global.

According to a 2021 report by MarketWatch, the SaaS market is poised to grow by up to US$99.99 billion by 2025, progressing at a compound annual growth rate of over 11% during the forecast period. With the advent of digitalisation accelerated further by the pandemic, SaaS has taken on an increasingly important role in the business landscape.

Even before the pandemic, businesses that have shifted to SaaS solutions from capital-heavy on-premises infrastructure have enjoyed IT spending reduction of more than 15%, according to data collected by Computer world. With customisable offerings that companies of virtually any size can choose from, SaaS solutions help minimise costs and maximise productivity for all sorts of businesses.

Also read: How TikTok co-creation strategy is supercharging Southeast Asian SMBs

With SaaS, in-house IT staff are able to focus on other vital tasks instead of being preoccupied with maintenance work typically required by on-premises hardware and software infrastructure. Moreover, because SaaS solutions are centrally hosted, disruptions and outages are dealt with more swiftly, allowing your team to continue running despite potential downtimes. These are only some of the practical benefits that many enterprises today enjoy because of the power of SaaS.

Promising young startups offering SaaS solutions for businesses

Given all these benefits and the increasingly saturated SaaS market, here are some of the new startups that are helping enterprises maximise their output with different technological tools that your business might be interested in:

1. ExtraaEdge
   
   This startup helps create an edge in the education market with its one of a kind SaaS model through a US$25B global admissions software space. With its tools, ExtraaEdge helps enable 500 thousand Education Institutes to acquire the next 30 million students using the power of predictive analytics and marketing automation software. With this, it has established market category leadership in the education marketing industry. It helps the education industry increase, manage, and predict their admissions while automating their entire sales and leads processes. The startup is empowering admission teams across the globe to make smart, data-driven decisions to maximise admission outcomes, optimise market expenditure, and boost conversion rates as the cost to acquire admissions is extremely high while conversions are often poor.
2. eUnimart
   
   An AI-powered SAAS platform that helps businesses grow online by leveraging intelligence, reducing cost, and improving efficiency. As the number of channels of sales increases, complexity increases exponentially as well. With that complexity, scaling proves to be difficult even for large multibillion-dollar companies. Eunimart helps different brands and businesses scale up and sell across all channels of sales from Shopify to Amazon, and many more. Euimart’s AI tools make this a single click endeavour by automating everything such as keywords optimisation, image optimisation, pricing, attributes generation, and many more. The tools they offer help merchants save 7-12% in costs, enabling them to increase their revenues. Using their AI platform does not require any upfront investment, charging only a meager 3% commission on the sales generated through the platform.
3. Prescinto
   
   It is an AI-powered SaaS platform that is helping energy businesses collect clean energy plant data and apply data science models to identify causes for underperformance. It does not only help in identifying a problem but also suggests work orders for crew to increase generation for Solar and Wind Projects. The only way to get ahead for a Clean Energy Project owner is to get higher generation from operational projects which can be achieved through data, technology, and AI. Here is where Prescinto steps in to fill this market gap: the model in which Prescinto operates is a SaaS subscription fee based on MW per annum. Its successful model has seen clients sign multi-year auto-renewal master agreements, allowing them to automatically onboard future projects on Prescinto.
4. GeoIQ
   
   It assists some of India’s leading brands with live data insights for some of the most important business decisions involving consumers on a day-to-day basis. These key data points include users’ purchasing power, habits, trends, preferences — everything that can be reviewed to make high-impact business decisions with more precision. The experienced Indian tech talent at GeoIQ leverages machine learning, geo-spatial capabilities, real-time government data, satellite imagery, along with some of the most state-of-the-art tech to deliver cutting edge competitive advantages that help optimise sales, promotion, and logistics expenditures to the most efficient levels for companies.

Building better business with SaaS

Given the plethora of benefits that come with SaaS solutions and the unique models and platforms being offered by some of today’s most advanced and cutting-edge startups, the era of digitalisation looks bright.

ExtraaEdge, Eunimart, Prescinto, and GeoIQ are only some of today’s most promising startups that prove how today’s businesses can better navigate the ever-evolving complexity of the market with the help of SaaS. Through these unique solutions, businesses will better leverage intelligent data to create impactful decisions, cultivate opportunities for growth, and address gaps in the market.

Also read: How Thai food supply chain startup Freshket weathered through the pandemic

These four startups will be pitching at the 9Unicorns Venture Catalysts demo day with 12 other up-and-coming startups offering their own unique products and services. Join them on August 11 and 12 to connect with some of the most promising young startups in a virtual networking session. To learn more, visit their official page here.

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Photo by Vijit Bagh from Pexels

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 9Unicorns.

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