SoftBank-backed data security firm Cohesity plans to invest $1 billion in India over the next five years, chief executive and president Sanjay Poonen said as he inaugurated the company’s new Bengaluru office on Thursday.
Furthermore, Poonen said the new Bengaluru campus will focus on engineering capabilities and support functions, even though capacity expansion and investment are happening across all locations. He said, “There are multiple reasons for investing here. Talent is a huge draw, but the Indian economy is another.”
Although he didn’t reveal the exact share of India’s contribution to Cohesity’s total annual recurring revenue of $1.6 billion, he confirmed that India ranks among the top ten markets. He added, “Also, the country gives access to neighboring destinations, particularly the Middle East and Singapore, with customers who can fly in for the meetings.”
Additionally, the campus inauguration aligns with the one-year milestone of Cohesity’s integration with Veritas’ data protection business, which it acquired last year in a $3 billion deal. Out of its 13,000 global customers, India hosts around 600 clients, while Cohesity employs nearly 2,200 people across various functions in the country.
Moreover, Cohesity counts companies such as Infosys, BMW, and Salesforce among its clients. However, Poonen sees the strongest growth potential across BFSI, the public sector, service integrators (tech), healthcare, and telecom due to increasing tech adoption in these industries. Poonen said, “Revenue growth is very much a function of how much the country is willing to spend on security. That way, the US market is the biggest by far, contributing 50% of revenue, since they are mature. But other markets, including India, are growing faster now.”
Emphasizing the importance of the India team, Poonen said software engineers and support roles represent the largest share of the company’s talent base. He explained, “Typically, there are three areas within engineering we focus on: multi-cloud data protection, advanced security, and AI. Engineering teams in India often take the lead in multi-cloud, which has a lot of workload connectors between Bengaluru and Pune. The bulk of that effort is primarily led from India.”
Finally, he said that Cohesity divides its security and AI-focused work between the US and India, creating a collaborative model across both regions.
