Rocketlane, a Chennai-based software-as-a-service startup, said customer onboarding is becoming increasingly important for B2B companies selling to large customers, for whom a good onboarding experience is proving to be a boon in fast-paced growth environments, according to cofounder and CEO Srikrishnan Ganesan.
Ganesan told that companies have begun investing in customer onboarding even before they invest in traditional customer success software. “This is a good indicator for us that this space is emerging fast and the budget is getting created.” Rocketlane is also seeing brisk registrations for an onboarding-focussed event, indicating strong interest in its category.
backed by venture capital Rocketlane is one of a new generation of business-focused SaaS startups emerging from India and making waves in the multibillion-dollar US SaaS market. With established companies like Zoho and Freshworks focusing on business software like help desks, CRM, accounting software, customer success, and more, the new generation is honing its skills in niches where market depth is projected to emerge in the coming years.
Until recently, “customer success” was a much-discussed niche that SaaS startups were pursuing: it refers to optimising a product package so that it offers the best results at the best price for the consumer.
Ganesan, who had previously sold his in-app chat company Konotor to Freshworks, created Rocketlane in the midst of the pandemic. In January, the business raised $18 million in a round led by 8VC, more than doubling its seed round of $3 million.
Within six months of launching, Rocketlane has risen to the top of G2, a publication that publishes peer-reviewed reports on business software. Chargebee and Yellow.ai, two SaaS unicorns, are among the company’s onboarding customers.
The SaaS sector has come a long way from where it was 10 years ago with the rapid adoption of public cloud software across the world. As more and more SaaS is gets sold, the process of onboarding new, large clientele will become critical for growing B2B SaaS providers. “Onboarding is the first partnership that a customer experiences with your B2B company. If you do a sloppy job there, you are on the backfoot from the get-go. If you impress and deliver value fast, you can have an expansion conversation early. So this impacts time-to-value, NRR, and churn, some of the most critical SaaS metrics that boards care about,” Ganesan said.
In terms of growth estimates, he noted that, for the most part, SaaS companies expect to see a 5x increase in revenue in the first year, up from 3x previously. He went on to say that these expectations are in line with the amount of money going into SaaS companies, and that founders must ensure that the targets do not put too much pressure on their teams. Rocketlane has so far received $21 million in investment.
Now The company, which is based in Chennai, has only recently begun recruiting in the United States. It hopes to capitalise on its newfound popularity by hosting Propel 22, a two-day virtual global conference on customer onboarding that began in mid-March.