Solidworks, Dassault Systèmes’ 3D design software unit, is betting on India growth story as it sees the country as one of the most important markets for growth.

“Our growth in India has been about 30% this year. Compared with US market, where growth is about 10%, we look at where the future growth is and India is on top of that list,” Suchit Jain, VP—Strategy and Community at Solidworks, told Businessline.

Solidworks primarily works with manufacturing companies to help them design and engineer the products.

But unlike the mature markets where purchasing power of its customers is much higher than what it is now, Solidworks is facing challenges in India to price its products right for the market.

“We would have cloud products coming up in India with very differential pricing compared to the world market. You will pay for the time consumed and make it a lot more affordable than what it is today,” Jain said.

Solidworks have partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to test the model for select customers. AWS cloud will host Solidworks software, which will then be offered to customers in a cloud model, like Gmail.

The differential pricing and the company’s rigorous efforts in the country are already showing results as the company is able to rapidly increase its user base in the country.

“India is growing rapidly with about 8,000 commercial customers in India. We are adding 1,000 new logos year on year in last three years. Last year we added 1,150 new companies on Solidworks,” he said.

In last five years, the company has doubled their business in India,with a compound growth of about 19 per cent. They are now looking at raising the CAGR to 25 per cent and also, doubling revenues in the next three years.

Program for Startups

Dassault Systèmes also announced the availability of its Global Entrepreneur Program for Indian startups, entrepreneurs and makers on Tuesday.

The program leverages Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, applications, online services and a community of mentors and industry professionalsto accompany innovators at every step of their development.

Jain said that the impact of the company’s work with startups is already bearing fruits,as at least a third of them turn into paying customers for the French firm.

“Globally we have more than 3,000 startups in just over a year. We get over 300 applications a month. It is exponentially growing. For India, we have identified 75 incubators and accelerators and have signed up 11 of the largest. That’s about 40-50 startups per incubator or over 500 startups,” Jain said.

Under the program, Solidworks offers its tools for free to startups that could otherwise cost several lakhs per licence. The company is also helping them through mentorship and training on these tools in order to promote its software among the startup community.

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