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The Modern Data Stack

Posted on by Veenu Choudhary

Data Sources–

Companies generate a lot of data from different sources.

  • OLTP Databases– OLTP (Online transactional processing) systems handle large volumes of transactional data. It consists of user information and operational data generated by users such as e-commerce purchases and online banking. A standard database management system (DBMS) is an OLTP system. Mysql, mongoDB and Postgres are some well-known databases.
  • SaaS tools– Companies use many SaaS tools to run their business such as CRM tools to store sales, marketing and customer success data (Salesforce, Hubspot), payment/billing softwares (Stripe).
  • Event Collectors– Nowadays every possible touch point with the users is recorded as an event, which is used for analysis. It includes recording every click on websites and apps. Segment and Snowplow are popular choices for collecting events.

Extract and Load

All data from different data sources is extracted and loaded to a centralized data warehouse/ data lake. Earlier, the sequence used to be ETL- data is first extracted then transformed and then loaded into the data warehouse. Now, it has evolved to ELT- data is extracted and loaded into the datahouse and later transformed at the warehouse itself.

Data Storage

Ingestion tools stored the data at a cloud data warehouse or data lake. Data warehouse stores structured data (tables) that can be directly queried for analytics. The popular cloud data warehouses are Snowflake, Google Bigquery and Amazon Redshift.

Data Transformation

After storing the data, it is transformed directly in the warehouse into a structure ready for analysis, which is used by the data science and business team to run different analytics and ML models. Dbt, Airflow and LookML are the most popular transformation tools.

Analysis/ Output

The transformed data can used for different purposes-

  • BI/ Visualisation– These tools enable business users to derive insights. They provide a dashboard view with graphs/ pie charts which facilitates business visibility. Tableau, Looker, Power BI are some popular BI tools.
  • Data Workspaces– These tools make it easier for different users to query, visualize and collaborate on data and create dashboards. Some of the emerging data workspaces tools are hex, deepnote, mode, noteable.
  • Data Science, AI/ ML– Data scientists can run ML models on data with help of these tools. Some of the popular tools are Sagemaker, Continual.
  • Reverse ETL– It syncs back the aggregated data to SaaS tools like customer support, sales and marketing to provide full consumer visibility to business users at their primary software. Census and Hightouch are the popular reverse ETL tools.

Data Monitoring and Governance –

We also need to maintain operational data hygiene. There are three major data ops categories of softwares, which help in reducing the risk, operational complexity and cost of the cloud data-

  • Data Observability– Testing and monitoring pipelines are developed to detect and resolve errors or issues. Monte Carlo, Acceldata and Great Expectations are the popular choices.
  • Data Discovery– Data cataloguing, documentation and discovery so that people can discover the right tables for their use. Atlan, Amundsen, and Alation are the popular tools here.
  • Data Security– Access control and data security to safeguard the company’s data. Control which employee has access to which data. Cyral, Immuta are the emerging tools in this category.
  • Introduction of Data lakehouse by databricks and Unistore by Snowflake- Databricks has introduced the data lakehouse. A data lakehouse combines the flexibility, cost efficiency of a data lake with the data management capabilities of a data warehouse. It is an open data management architecture to enable analytics, BI and ML on all data types.
https://www.databricks.com/glossary/data-lakehouse
https://www.snowflake.com/en/data-cloud/platform/
  • Data Marketplace — Snowflake has become a behemoth and is now adopting a platform approach enabling products to develop on top of it. Idea is companies can use the native application framework to build native Snowflake apps that can be distributed through Snowflake Marketplace. Snowflake customers can discover, evaluate and run the apps in their accounts, removing the need to move data, thereby improving privacy and security. It is enabling customers to bring apps to data rather than moving data to different apps. It eliminates the delay and cost of traditional ETL with direct access to ready-to-query data and pre-built SaaS connectors.
https://www.snowflake.com/snowflake-marketplace/
  • MDSaaS– Modern Data Stack as a service. Data Stack is complex and evaluating tools and setting up the entire stack can be a challenging time taking process. There are low/no-code platforms that provide all the tools needed to go from data sources to interactive dashboards. Some of the emerging startups here are Selfr.io, Octolis.

Unravelling the Portfolio: 1K

Posted on by Kae Team

Brief about 1K

1K is a hyperlocal omnichannel grocery chain focused on fulfilling the aspirations of ‘Real Bharat’. The business was founded in 2018 by Kumar Sangeetesh, Sachin Sharma, and Abhishek Halder. The founders believe that Kirana entrepreneurs will play a pivotal role in building a sustainable channel to deliver wow micro-experiences to aspiring consumers of Bharat. The ultimate goal is to create a seamless flow of goods from brands to consumers and overcome the shortcomings of traditional distribution systems with the help of their in-house technology-enabled platforms and “smart” warehousing.

Vision and Mission

To revolutionise the grocery shopping experience for the non-urban population of Real Bharat.

Building “Bharat’s” first “omnichannel” distribution network that brings consumers’ aspirations closer to them.

Genesis

Two of the co-founders were working together at one of India’s largest logistics companies; they identified that one of the biggest struggles for brands was to reach and distribute their products in smaller towns of the country. Due to broken distribution networks, product availability has always been a massive issue in smaller towns/cities, despite rising customer demand.

Hence, they decided to solve this problem by making an efficient and cost-effective distribution model by aggregating the distribution rights of multiple brands.

Market Opportunity

Less than one lakh people inhabit 65% of towns in the country. There are about 7,000 towns with 5,000 to 100,000 residents. They are trying to serve a market worth a solid USD 150 billion. Their approach is distinctive in that it prioritizes grocery sale purchases, which account for 70% of consumer spending in such markets.

5-year Plan

Over the next five years, they want to increase their market share in these markets by 5%, making them one of the leading retailers in the country. It is crucial to keep in mind that more than 25,000 regional microentrepreneurs will support this as they develop the company and satisfy the customers’ needs in these areas.

Unravelling the Portfolio: TranZact

Posted on by Kae Team

Brief about TranZact:

TranZact is a freemium digitisation software for 14MN+ SMEs Manufacturers & Traders, empowering them by digitising business workflow right from sales to dispatch.
With scalable distribution and engaging software, they are capturing real transaction data, which becomes the foundation to build a transaction-backed marketplace at scale.

Vision and Mission:

Empowering SMEs owners to grow their business through digitisation.
Building a digitisation platform for 14MN+ SMEs to convert their business data into actionable insights.

Genesis:

TranZact started with the idea of creating digital technologies for 14MN+ SMEs, which are still struggling with very old digital technologies. They felt that in today’s era of digitisation, even though the SME space is often ignored, it remains a very large sector, and if there is specific technology built for this space, the impact will be much larger and deeper.

Market Opportunity:

14MN+ Indian manufacturers and traders

5-year Plan:

Going to build a transaction-backed market network platform with over $500MN in revenue coming from multiple revenue streams like software and transactions.

Wysa secures $20mn to address global mental health demand with AI digital Therapeutics

Posted on by Kae Team

 

  • HealthQuad and British International Investment (BII) join earlier investors W Health Ventures, Kae Capital, pi Ventures, and Google Assistant Investments.
  • Funds will enable access to clinically evidenced digital therapeutics (DTx) in the US, UK, India and other global markets.
  • Will enable further reach through multi-lingual support and access via alternative technologies.
  • Follows FDA Breakthrough Device Designation and clinical evidence of a Therapeutic Alliance.

Wysa, the leading AI digital platform for mental health, today announces it has secured $20M in financing. Wysa will use this capital to further expand into the US, UK, India and other global markets across enterprises, payors, and providers as well as improve wider usability through multi-lingual support and easier access via WhatsApp. The round is led by HealthQuad, who along with British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, joins earlier investors W Health Ventures, Kae Capital, Google Assistant Investments, and pi Ventures amongst others.

Globally, there is a huge demand-supply gap in the mental health space. One in eight people in the world lives with a mental disorder, according to the World Health Organisation. With high treatment costs and limited access to qualified therapists, employers, healthcare providers and insurers are seeking ways to help people manage their mental health and well-being through clinically proven, cost-effective and scalable solutions.

Wysa uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to triage users according to their personal needs, guiding them through appropriate, evidence-based CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) exercises within the app, towards other mental health services or crisis support. Wysa’s platform provides employers and health services insights into usage rates of Wysa and digital well-being tools while maintaining user privacy.

Wysa has achieved FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its AI-based digital mental health conversational agent for adults with a diagnosis of chronic musculoskeletal pain and associated depression and anxiety. Additionally, clinical trials have validated Wysa’s efficacy and published peer-reviewed results show that therapeutic emotional bonds formed by Wysa are equivalent to human therapist relationships. The company has, to date, achieved a revenue-generating user base of over 4.5 million people across 65 countries. Clients include Accenture, Colgate-Palmolive, Aetna International, Swiss Re, the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, and the Ministry of Health in Singapore.

Charles Antoine-Janssen, Chief Investment Officer, HealthQuad said: “We are thrilled to be part of the Wysa team. Wysa is developed in India and is marketed globally. The needs for Wysa are present all across, from high-income to low-income countries. Mental health triaging of patients using AI which is fast, effective and non-stigmatising for patients living in unaccepting societies answers a huge need in India, the rest of low-income Asia, Africa as well as the wealthiest countries of the world.”

“Wysa provides help across the care continuum – from the first point of access to digital therapeutics and companion alongside a clinician to ongoing monitoring & routine management thereby democratising access to mental health. FDA Breakthrough Device Designation status, user privacy further validated by Mozilla and real-time AI-CBT support makes Wysa one of the few clinically validated, privacy-focused and personalised solutions built for a global scale” added Ajay Mahipal, Director, HealthQuad.

Srini Nagarajan, Managing Director and Head of Asia at British International Investment added: “Good mental health is a crucial pillar for sound physical health which in turn promotes social and economic development. Through our investment in Wysa, BII is taking a holistic approach to supporting long-term productive economic prosperity by backing an innovative tech-enabled company that is increasing access to mental health services for low-income and rural individuals. We are excited to continue working with Wysa’s team to grow their offering and help improve health outcomes and quality of life for people.”

Ramakant Vempati, Co-founder, Wysa, said: “Wysa has not only been extremely successful as a consumer well-being platform but has also developed into a clinically validated, powerful tool to proactively manage mental health and well-being. Wysa meets people where they are, whether that means a little help with occasional workplace stress, right up to coping with debilitating pain, depression and anxiety. With this funding, we look forward to scaling up further and helping millions of more people.”

Dynamic NFT Enablers

Posted on by Kae Team

The last few months have seen a rapid rise in all things metaverse and blockchain gaming across the globe. It may be tempting to brush this aside as a fad, but the adoption numbers tell an interesting story – the number of Daily Unique Wallets interacting with Gaming Smart Contracts has grown from 28k in 2020 to 1.3 Mn in 2021.

According to reports, even monetization trends have been strong ~ Blockchain Gaming Quarterly Revenue for Q3 FY22 alone was $ 2.32 Bn vs $ 320 Mn in the whole year of 2020 – which is an 8x growth. At the heart of it, metaverses are interactive ecosystems which use game-level graphics (can also use AR/VR elements) and game engine interactions to solve for user engagement through the game. These ecosystems use a blockchain ledger to build out X2E economies (X – can be “Play”, “Learn”, “Contribute”, etc.) – where a supply of tokens (which run the economy) is released into the ecosystem as more and more users come in. P2E economies have become the most prominent paradigm in blockchain gaming – usual suspects include games like Axie.

Dynamic NFTs (NFTs whose metadata can be updated) form a core piece of the Web3 metaverse and gaming economies. To understand the complexity of such ecosystems – imagine a Pokemon game (read: an Axie-like game) where you start off with 3 pokemon -> A, B, C. Assuming there are approximately 200 players who will want to start with A, 300 with B and 400 with C – we effectively have 900 NFTs (each NFT will have a unique address and unique metadata values at a particular “state” – the metadata here can be experience points or XP/levels, movesets, graphics, etc.). The updated rules can be coded into the smart contract, i.e. if my Pokemon crosses 100 XP (note: here the parameter XP is predefined in the NFT), it will evolve or if the NFT interacts with an external signal – like a sports news feed – it can trigger the update of the NFT, or if you enter a certain zone in the Metaverse, etc.

As the games scale up, i.e. go from sub 500 DAUs, to 10,000 DAUs, there are different elements of the backend which will need to be productized in order to enable deployment of dynamic NFTs at scale across different NFT use cases like upgrading, minting, renting, leasing, fractionalizing, etc.

We have seen challenges with the synchronization of on-chain and off-chain databases – Games/Metaverse often work with both on-chain and off-chain databases. On-chain databases will be used to store the addresses/ownership data. For example, if there’s a fighting game where one can pick up different weapons/items, if one picks up a knife NFT, the ownership vector will now point to that person. Similarly, for the off-chain data, a character’s graphics will get stored on a centralized/off-chain database. As games/metaverses scale, there is a potential to provide a platform for the synchronization, batching of blockchain update requests and updating of various data points in the ecosystem – which games currently build in-house using ineffective alternatives like cron jobs. Companies like Chainlink have been working on this problem.

Currently, no dashboards exist to see the status of active NFTs, and no good tools exist to edit smart contract updating rules. At any given point in time, game developers do not have visibility of the game rules and conditions in one place – for example, if one has 400 unique pokemon – each corresponds to a unique smart contract which determines the rules of NFT updates. With newer games and mechanisms – the NFT ecosystem becomes more complex, for example, of the 400 NFTs, you have 200 NFTs which need to further interact with external stimuli to trigger a smart contract auto-updating/metadata updating. The vision can be to build a no-code dashboard to drag and drop game functionality/game economy functionality – where one can drag a box which changes the game economy rules (eg. changing the prize for a pokemon battle from 1 point to 2 points, etc.)

We have also come across challenges with serum-based NFT updating mechanisms (however, they don’t allow for the preservation of the previously held NFTs). We believe that the TAM will become large enough in the coming few years as Web3 metaverse and gaming companies might share $0.5-$1 per user (approximately $15-20 ARPU), making this an interesting but nascent space to look at.

The NFT ecosystem is rapidly evolving with many exciting new opportunities and challenges – we feel we have just scratched the surface, and there is a lot more yet to come.

Unravelling the Portfolio: Traya Health

Posted on by Kae Team

Brief about Traya
A one-product approach never works on hair loss or any other chronic condition. Traya combines the best of Ayurveda, Allopathy and Nutrition containing proven results to identify the type of hair loss, stage and the root cause behind it. Based on this, each person gets a doctor-prescribed treatment plan and a hair coach who guides the customer and tracks their progress.

Vision and Mission
Traya was started with just one goal in mind- to deliver visible hair growth results. We did everything from product and process to tech, keeping in mind the efficacy of the treatment. Back in 2019, Traya was sold to the first 55 customers through a basic landing page and they took the proprietary formulations (all-natural herbs + dermatologist prescribed + diet). They were closely observed for 4 months and a good 90% of them started seeing visible results. That is when we decided to launch a brand and seek investment. We knew we had hit a gold mine.

Genesis
Traya is an outcome of the cofounders’ personal journey as a couple. About 3 years ago, co-founder Altaf struggled with a number of health issues including uncontrollable thyroid levels accompanied by accelerated hair loss (he faces genetic male pattern hair loss) and weight gain, which was compounded by his hectic lifestyle. He went from doctor to doctor and couldn’t do much about his situation. We researched more and explored ayurveda and naturopathy diets. The three together changed our lives. Altaf’s hair regrew and his thyroid came under control. Even his endocrinologist was surprised. Even then the cofounders had no intention of starting a company. Almost a year later, by helping a lot of friends and family with chronic health issues including hair loss, they decided to take this space seriously. They realised that both of them were extremely passionate about solving chronic health issues that a millennial faces. On further research, hair loss was chosen as a disease line to begin. It was the most crowded but also the most corrupt. As they researched more on the diseases, its types, they realised nothing out in the market can ever work. The issue is considered cosmetic but it is internal. Thus, they took up the challenge to change the way the hair loss industry works.

Market Opportunity

The current hair fall market in India is broken. Many have a product-centric approach which is clearly not effective in delivering the results. Hair fall is a problem that needs to be addressed holistically and requires customization as per every individual’s root cause of hair fall. Out of the entire serviceable market, 125 million adults in India directly benefit from Traya’s offering and have the ability to afford it. The $12.5 Billion hair loss solutions market is up for grabs and Traya is aggressively growing to capture the entirety of the market while also changing the way a hair fall solution is approached and the results speak for themselves. In addition to the direct solutions to hair fall, Traya is also targeting the next line of products including anti-dandruff and cuticle damage.

5-year plan

We want to be synonymous with the terms hair fall and hair health and be known for our efficacy and honesty. On the product side, we are in research for no side effects and high-efficacy solutions for other hair concerns.

Portfolio Fundraise Update: Foxtale raises $4M in a pre-series A round

Posted on by Kae Team


Indian D2C skincare brand, Foxtale, has raised $4M in its pre-Series A funding round led by Matrix Partners India with participation from existing investor Kae Capital and some notable angel investors.

The Mumbai-based startup raised its seed round in August last year. The startup launched in December 2021, and found an early product-market fit and a repeat rate of more than 50%, which led to a quick pre-Series A round.

This round of funding will be used in expanding the product range, hiring senior vertical heads and in scaling the business across multiple touch points.

The culture of self-care is still very nascent in India. While skincare brands have existed for a long time, they either fall in the category of herbal and ayurvedic, ineffective yet massy or luxury and expensive. Foxtale wants to bridge this gap between efficacy and affordability, making skincare, and by extension, self-care, accessible to all. To understand what the modern Indian woman is looking for in skincare, the Founder and CEO, Romita Mazumdar conducted interviews with more than 3000 women. From all those insights and the expertise of a team of brilliant chemists and formulators, Foxtale was born.

The brand’s decision to launch with 4 basic products, a cleanser, vitamin C serum, moisturizer and sunscreen, was a bold move, as most other brands rely on starting with a wide range of SKUs. However, Foxtale’s approach to skincare is guided by what its consumers need. It’s these 4 product categories that people use the most and need better formulations for. After perfecting this 4-step routine, Foxtale is now ready to launch more targeted solutions to the users’ skincare issues.

Efficacy is one of the biggest selling points of Foxtale. This is ensured by their formulation team, headed by one of the most lauded names in Indian cosmetics and personal care products, Dr. Ramesh Surianarayanan. He has pioneered many acclaimed products in his previous stints at Himalaya and Unilever and he now extends his expertise to Foxtale. The product development engine at Foxtale keeps its user community at the centre. From identifying which products they should launch, testing them, and finalising the packaging, Foxtale tries to include feedback from their users every step of the way and they only launch products in the market once 97% of their community approves of their efficacy.

Speaking of the funding, Romita Mazumdar, Founder & CEO, Foxtale, said, “A big issue in the Indian skincare industry has been the low customer repeat rates. It was clear that efficacy was a big problem for skincare enthusiasts in India and we had to solve it. Our focus on understanding our customer’s needs & product innovation has enabled us to establish a strong early product-market fit and drive industry-leading repeat rates and customer NPS scores; however, there is still a long way to go. I am very excited to find partners like Matrix and Kae in this journey and looking forward to building Foxtale with them.”

“The beauty and personal care market in India is growing fast and is expected to reach $28B by 2025. We are privileged to partner with Romita and the Foxtale team as they aim to disrupt this market through innovative products and differentiated go-to-market strategies. At Matrix, we continue to be excited about backing new-age consumer brands and Foxtale is our tenth investment in the sector.” commented Rajat Agarwal, Managing Director, Matrix India.

“Foxtale is different from other skincare brands. Its focus on high efficacy and the vigorous testing they conduct before launching a product is unlike any other. Foxtale sources 80% of its ingredients from premiere labs across the globe. We are excited to continue to partner with Foxtale as they build out India’s foremost skincare DTC brand.” commented Sunitha Viswanathan, Partner, Kae Capital.

On the road ahead, Romita said, “Our vision is one – to build a consumer-first brand where growth and product have equal importance. I want to change the perception that self-care should be a luxury restricted to women who have the privilege of time and money while proving that a profitable business can be built with consumers at the centre of the story.”

Unravelling the Portfolio: Hatica

Posted on by Kae Team

Brief about Hatica
Hatica is a Software Engineering Analytics platform that helps managers and leaders build productive and happy engineering teams.

Vision and Mission
The severe lack of visibility for Engineering managers in a world of distributed teams working across dozens of tools has made the job of engineering management harder than ever before. This naturally results in declining developer productivity and experience.

Hatica’s mission is to equip managers with a comprehensive Engineering management platform to provide them the much-needed visibility and insights into development work activity, processes, and quality to help them drive team productivity while ensuring well-being.

 

Genesis
The idea came from the founders’ experience of having worked remotely even before the pandemic and having worked through developer productivity challenges before. Followed by countless zoom interviews with engineering leaders, managers, and developers across regions and industries, Naomi and Haritabh completed and launched the first version of Hatica in early to mid-2021.


Market Opportunity
The trend of SaaS sprawl, combined with remote work becoming mainstream, has made engineering management even harder and the problem of developer productivity ubiquitous. This coupled with every organization requiring to be technology-first, driving demand for engineers, has provided us a tremendous pull from the customers with a sizable TAM.

5-year Plan
Go from a sharp Engineering analytics tool to an Engineering Management Platform, empowering every engineering manager and leader out there to drive engineering excellence and wellbeing.

Unravelling the Portfolio: Foxtale

Posted on by Kae Team

Brief about Foxtale
Foxtale is a community-first skincare brand. Foxtale is building a D2C Brand focused on creating scientifically backed skin care products for women. Foxtale aspires to give a product which is reasonably and affordably priced, while solving for efficacy of the product.

Vision and Mission

The vision is to create a range of products for Indian women of all skin types, belonging to places with diverse climatic conditions, and ensuring that it remains their partner at every stage of life. The mission is to create an INR 1000cr brand that solves skin problems in a scientific manner.

Genesis

After spending years in the Venture capital and finance spaces, I realised that there is a big gap in the skincare market in India. It is heavily dominated by traditional players such as Fair and Lovely, Ponds, etc. and the new-age players have been unable to grab a market share, due to a lack of consistent results. Another problem with skin care for women in India is the changing needs of women every week, based on their biological cycle, their area of residence and the climatic conditions of that specific time. Hence, there was a strong need to have products which can solve for the varying needs of women and at the same time, provide long-lasting results consistently.

Market Opportunity

The total market size of skincare products in India in 2020 – $2 Bn and is projected to reach ~ $3 Bn by 2025. In India, there is a need for players who can deliver consistent results at affordable prices.

5-year plan

The 5-year plan for the company is to expand distribution across India and to command a high repeat rate of 70%-80%. We are building a company that accelerates every year to a revenue of 1000cr in the next 5 years. The company prides itself in understanding women and while our core expertise is skincare, we hope to be every Indian woman’s companion through her self-care journey.

A Guide to Improve and Maximise Developer Productivity: Metrics, Tools, and more

Posted on by Veenu Choudhary

 

The global application development software market is anticipated to reach $733.5 Bn by 2028

Developers in India are paid INR 410 per hour, on average. It can even touch INR 2000 per hour on the higher side. Despite that, the median code time per developer was found as 52 minutes per day, or four hours and 21 minutes of code time per week

Thus, there is a need for organisations to invest in platforms that help boost developer productivity

Developers have become the biggest ask for tech companies at this point in time. You may be seeing a lot of job openings now, but developers have had the privilege of constant job openings, with or without pandemic woes. The global application development software market is anticipated to reach $733.5 Bn by 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 24.3% from 2021 to 2028, as per Grand View Research, Inc. But while there seem to be so many opportunities for developers, their time presently is not being optimised well. If you want to know how to maximise your developer’s productivity, read ahead!

India’s app developer base is one of the highest in the world with 1.6 Mn jobs in the sector. The resultant websites and apps coming from the sector generated a revenue of $581.9 Bn in 2020.

Inefficient Utilisation Of Developers

The job of a software developer requires them to interact with multiple tools on a regular basis. But the time cost of context switching between tools, collaboration, documentation, version control, and duct taping the issues is quite high. This ends up eating into the employee’s development time.

According to Software’s Code Time Report, the median code time per developer globally was found as 52 minutes per day, or four hours and 21 minutes of code time per week. It was also found that developers spend an additional 41 minutes per day on other types of work such as reading code, reviewing pull requests, and browsing documentation. Thus, there’s a major developer experience gap.

Most companies are ineffectively deploying their developers, throwing various distractions their way. This is supplemented by further disruptions and meetings, as well as system inefficiencies, such as slow reviews, slow builds and bad tools. In order to ensure optimal utilisation of developers, strong dev tools are required. This can bridge the developer experience gap and improve a developer’s experience across the entire workflow.

Importance Of Dev Tools

Dev tools are a range of products focused on developers to help them build, deploy and collaborate on a daily basis. Global companies such as Github, Slack, JIRA, Browserstack, Snowflake, Postman and Datadog have created tools that are used by almost all developers. The dev tools market has made massive strides in the last few years. There are more than 73 Mn developers on Github, with over 16 Mn developers added in 2021 alone.

Snowflake reported stronger than expected Q4 2021 results, with revenue rising by about 117% to $107 Mn. There has been a steady shift from a ‘Build and Buy’ to a ‘Buy and Build’ decision-making mentality. Organisations have become more cognizant of these tools and the value they bring to the table. They are more than willing to invest in platforms that help boost developer productivity. This begs the question, what really caused this perception change?

Impact Of The Pandemic

This slow but steady shift got catapulted by the pandemic. The dev tools market has experienced tailwinds from this increased digital adoption. The pandemic forced teams to work remotely, which deepened the already existing problem of collaboration and communication. Many SaaS tools are being built for the future of work, to make this transition easier. These tools act as a supplement to the present working conditions, thus enhancing productivity.

To get a better understanding of why there’s a need to invest heavily in developers, we need to recognise that while developers have become a staple for tech companies, they are an expensive resource at the same time. On average, developers in India get paid INR 5.2 Lakh per year. This excludes bonuses, profit sharing and commission which are all big components for developers. Calculated on an hourly basis, it comes to INR 410, and even touches INR 2,000 on the higher side. This alone underpins the importance of optimising the developers’ time and helping them.

Thus, there’s a need to back developers and engineers with the right tools. At the same time, there’s a need to have visibility into DevOps. This, when backed by solid numeric data, can give a clear picture of the inefficiencies arising and help in optimising for these specific issues. At the end of the day, high-performing engineering teams are essential for the success of companies as they can release products to market faster.

There is a need for tools that can empower them to manage their daily tasks — context switching, collaboration, etc. in an efficient way. The developer productivity tools market is fast emerging to solve this problem. This would be key to look out for as we go deeper into cross-vertical functions and remote working.