Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud business, will increase investments in India to boost its specialist teams and partner programs to help startups scale amid an ongoing wave of rapid digital adoption across the country. Gaurav Arora, director and head of businesses for Asia Pacific and Japan, AWS said in an interview with EconomicTimes.com.

Arora – who is bullish on startups in fintech, healthtech, gaming, web3 and software as a service (SaaS) – said the global cloud provider’s continued investment in specialist teams and programs allows startups to benefit from intensive, sector-focused It will help to grow. The expertise and practical information they provide.

Many of these specialist programs, he said, have been created in partnership with its partner and investor ecosystem, including vertical venture capitalists (VCs), micro-VCs, super-angels, incubators and accelerators.

SaaS Central, an intensive five-week program launched by AWS in partnership with Prime Ventures, is one such example. Designed to help SaaS startups in Asia-Pacific and Japan accelerate their growth and go global, the program provides go-to-market strategy, product management, and fundraising with mentorship and training, among others. provides.

Arora said AWS is working with several consulting firms and independent software vendors (ISVs) to help startups — which may not have in-house expertise — to realize the benefits of cloud computing, Arora said. he said.

Arora said the company will promote investment in skill building by offering courses to startup teams to build real-time applications on top of the cloud.

In line with the company’s optimism about opportunities in the Indian market, AWS, in November 2020, announced the expansion of its services to include a second infrastructure sector in India, which will be launched in Hyderabad later this year. It will include three availability zones and will join the existing nine AWS regions, including its Mumbai region which was launched in June 2016.

earlier this year,

Puneet Chandok, President, Commercial Business, AWS India and South Asia, AISPL told ET. told, AWS has seen a “dramatic acceleration” of its business in India. He expects demand for its cloud services to remain high and likely to grow rapidly, with cloud adoption across all enterprises.

Indian startups going global

To be sure, rapid digitization across India, including Tier 3 and 4 cities, as well as emphasis on building sustainable business models present strong growth opportunities for startups in India, Arora said.

“I think the quality of entrepreneurs in India will continue to grow and this will be a fundamental edge for India in the wider global landscape. I also think that India solves a lot more problems than what we have seen in previous years. which are globally relevant.

Take the case of Indian SaaS unicorns like Hasura and Postman, two startups with which AWS works closely. Both have seen global traction by solving many of the existing dev-ops problems and application programming interface (API) challenges. Polygon, a layer-2 platform in the crypto space that builds an ecosystem of decentralized apps, is another such example.

“They start from India and move to different geographies. We hardly had platform startups coming out of India (and going global). But it will continue and become more and more (normal),” Arora said.

Arora said other key growth themes include sustainability and the opportunity for new-age companies to adopt eco-friendly policies amidst the growing need to build sustainable business models.

“I am very excited about India’s startup ecosystem. I think India has moved from promise and capability to performance, and we see that in Indian startups today. Overall, given the need to stay innovative and experimental, despite short-term constraints like a ‘technological winter’, and putting customers first, I’m really excited to see what lies ahead for the Indian startup ecosystem. It is,” Arora said.

Help for startups amid ‘tech winter’

Arora said that while some of these short-term constraints will continue, startups will have to ensure that they are adapting to the changing consumer and societal needs to meet these challenges. For AWS, this means providing the support startups need as they focus on their core strengths, while optimizing costs and conserving cash to grow their runway.

“In fact, our teams are compensated for certain KPIs based on how much they helped startups save cash. We previously went from pay-as-you-go to pay-for-what-you-really-need-for. The focus is clearly in terms of making sure startups stay lean and listen to the changing needs of their consumers, and ensure they don’t have to worry about much of the heavy lifting when they need to pivot to greater digitization. Not needed,” Arora said.

With over 200 different services, from basic computing and network storage to very advanced computing, as well as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and analytics solutions, AWS has a broad range of capabilities to meet needs. Provides set. Enterprises and Startups at any point in their life cycle in various verticals.

AWS Activate, the company’s foundational program through which every startup starts on its platform, has three key components. The first focuses on providing AWS credits to enable startups in the early stages of their journey; Second on technical support; And, third on offering personalized guidance, mentoring and training to help startups scale in both India and global markets.