Confluent, the data streaming giant founded by the creators of Apache Kafka, is making significant strides in India, identifying the country as a crucial market for its global expansion strategy.
“India has always been an incredibly important part of our team philosophy. We have very significant parts of our R&D operations here, including massive product areas, and almost every team is represented in India,” said Confluent co-founder and CEO Jay Kreps.
According to Kreps, approximately 20% of its global workforce is now based in India.
Demonstrating its commitment to the Indian market, Confluent has expanded its operations in the region, increasing its workforce by an impressive 50% in 2022. They also inaugurated a new office in Bengaluru, a pivotal hub for its operations in the country.
India has become a top priority for global tech companies due to its large talent pool, low operating costs, and stable environment for supply chains.
As the number of data centres in the country grows, with Oracle, Microsoft, and Meta recently setting up their bases, Confluent is well-positioned to leverage this infrastructure expansion to enhance its services and support for local and regional enterprises, relying on real-time data streaming.
Confluent boasts a substantial engineering team in Bengaluru and a distributed engineering presence nationwide. The leadership team hinted at growing the numbers, with 21 positions currently open in Bengaluru across various teams, including sales, support, and engineering.
India Expansion Strategy
“India, for us, is a very critical market. And it’s a top ten market,” emphasised Confluent global head of sales Hemanth Vedagarbha at the summit in a conversation with AIM. “The core to our APAC strategy is gaining market share in India.”
Confluent’s go-to-market strategy in India is multi-faceted, driven by a network of partnerships and direct sales efforts.
The company is actively investing in building its partner ecosystem, collaborating with major cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as system integrators, independent software vendors, resellers, and managed service providers.
To cater to price-sensitive customers in India, Confluent offers a globally consistent pricing model with built-in flexibility based on commitment levels. This allows startups to adopt the platform and effectively addresses the unique needs of the Indian market.
“We have specific initiatives also for startups. For example, getting specific credits for free so that they can start their business without worrying about the cost of the Confluent Cloud,” said CTO Chad Verbowski, speaking to AIM.
While other data streaming providers like Amazon Kinesis, Google Cloud Pub/Sub, and Azure Stream Analytics also offer robust, scalable, and cost-efficient solutions with strong local support, Confluent distinguishes itself in several ways that might make it a more suitable choice for certain Indian businesses.
The company’s unique advantages include its deep Apache Kafka expertise and a Kafka-centric ecosystem. It also emphasises on stream governance, flexibility in hybrid and multi-cloud deployments, focus on developer experience, and tailored solutions for the Indian market.
“A lot of our customers are generally on open-source Kafka, which is largely prevalent and free versus the paid version at Confluent. But we have our key differentiators. Namely the Kora engine, which is now 16 times more powerful than open-source Kafka,” Vedagarbha explained.
Additionally, users of the free and open-source Kafka can easily migrate to Confluent when needed.
Unveils New AI Features
Earlier this month, the company hosted its first Kafka Summit in Bengaluru to propel interest among Indian businesses.
“This conference is part of the efforts we’re undertaking to build a strong presence in the country,” said Kreps.
At the summit, Confluent unveiled new capabilities designed to simplify AI integration and stream processing. These advancements include the AI Model Inference for Apache Flink, the Confluent Platform for Apache Flink, and cost-effective Freight clusters.
Confluent’s Chief Product Officer Shaun Clowes stated, “Apache Kafka and Flink are the critical links to fuel machine learning and artificial intelligence applications with the most timely and accurate data.”
Confluent’s AI Model Inference removes the complexity of using streaming data for AI development by enabling organisations to innovate faster and deliver powerful customer experiences.
The new AI capabilities are particularly relevant to the Indian market, where businesses across sectors increasingly adopting AI and machine learning to drive innovation and competitiveness.
The AI Model Inference feature for Apache Flink allows Indian enterprises of all sizes to integrate AI into their data pipelines, enabling real-time decision-making and personalised customer experiences.
The AI capabilities introduced by Confluent so far are already garnering interest from Indian customers. Swiggy, a food delivery platform and a Confluent customer, is optimising its operations further with the platform.
Swiggy’s former CTO Dale Vaz noted, “With real-time insights powered by AI, we can make faster, more informed decisions and stay ahead in the highly competitive food delivery market.”
Confluent field CTO Kai Waehner emphasised the significance of these AI features for Indian customers, stating, “The AI Model Inference feature in Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink enables our customers in India to easily integrate machine learning models into their data streams without the need for complex infrastructure or extensive data engineering efforts.”
He said this allows businesses to quickly derive insights and take action on real-time data.
Moreover, the Confluent Platform for Apache Flink, which enables stream processing on-premises and in hybrid environments, is particularly crucial for Indian organisations that have not yet fully migrated to the cloud.
What’s next?
The company told AIM that it is actively exploring avenues to expand its presence beyond tier-one cities. Specifically, it aims to penetrate regional banks, non-banking financial services, and the healthcare, telecom, and thriving gaming sectors.
Vedagarbha stressed on the immense potential of the Indian market, stating, “When you have 1.3 billion people, there is a lot of data because you have birth records, land records, digital records, social security, health care, and all kinds of financial data. Governmental records and the private sector provide us with an opportunity.”
With the next Kafka summit to take place in Bengaluru again in March 2025, the company is bullish on India.
“We have committed to the Indian market, which we see as a significant growth opportunity. Whether through partnerships, investments in employee resources, or tailored solutions for specific industries, we’re dedicated to supporting India’s evolving data ecosystem,” Waehner said.
