The Agentic Shift, Gig Worker Unrest, and New Rules for Cabs

India’s first generation of SaaS unicorns is quietly undergoing its most consequential transition yet. Not a funding winter. Not a valuation reset. But something deeper and more structural: the people who built India’s billion-dollar SaaS companies are now walking away from them to build something that could eventually render those companies obsolete.

In late 2024, Nitin Jain, co-founder of OfBusiness - a $5 billion, profitable, IPO-ready company - exited to start a manufacturing-tech venture. Around the same time, Yellow.ai laid off over 100 employees, close to 30% of its workforce, explicitly to pivot from conversational AI to agentic AI. Freshworks froze hiring in multiple teams even as it doubled down on automation-led products. These weren’t isolated decisions. They were early signals.

India’s SaaS ecosystem is shifting from human-assisted software to autonomous systems that don’t only help employees, but replace them.

For over a decade, Indian SaaS scaled by augmenting labour. CRM tools made sales teams more efficient, ticketing tools made support cheaper, ERP systems reduced chaos. But humans always remained the bottleneck. Seat-based pricing worked because growth meant more people. Agentic AI breaks that assumption. When one autonomous agent can do the work of ten humans, the seat stops being an asset. It becomes friction.

Capital has already moved. In 2025, funding into agentic AI startups in India jumped nearly 10x, from roughly $280 million to about $2.8 billion, while traditional SaaS funding fell by over 30%. Globally, agentic AI pulled in $2.8 billion in just the first half of 2025 and is expected to cross $6.5 billion by year-end. Investors aren’t confused about where this is heading.

What makes this wave different from the PayPal or Flipkart alumni era is intent. Those founders built adjacencies. This generation is building replacements. An agentic supply-chain startup founded by an ex-OfBusiness or Zetwerk leader doesn’t need 100 sourcing executives. It needs a few engineers and thousands of AI agents running continuously.

The economics are unforgiving. A traditional sourcing or ops-heavy SaaS setup can cost ₹2.5-3 crore annually in manpower alone. An agentic alternative can run 40-50% cheaper and scale without linear headcount. Mukesh Bansal-backed Nurix AI runs voice agents at roughly 40 paise per minute, under ₹30 an hour, compared to ₹200-400 per hour for human agents. Companies like Composio and SuperAGI are already powering live agent workflows across sales, support, and ops. This is no longer experimental software.

Pricing stress is already visible. Salesforce charges up to $500 per user per month. Freshworks has reworked its AI pricing multiple times in a year. HubSpot now layers AI credits on top of subscriptions. These aren’t innovation moves. They’re defensive ones. Customers are increasingly asking a dangerous question: why pay per user when the task itself can be automated?

By 2028, industry estimates suggest nearly 70% of SaaS companies will move away from pure seat-based pricing. The market is shifting from software-as-a-service to agents-as-a-service, where pricing is tied to outcomes - tickets resolved, orders processed, leads converted.

The labour impact will be severe. By 2030, agentic AI could reshape over 10 million jobs in India, while only about 3 million new AI-native roles emerge.

Policy is accelerating the disruption faster than the safety net. The ₹10,000+ crore IndiaAI Mission has focused heavily on compute and startups, but far less on transition planning. Markets rarely self-correct this fast.

For founders, the message is uncomfortable but clear. If your product still assumes humans are the bottleneck, your TAM is shrinking. Adding AI features won’t save you. Either you own the agent, or you become what the agent replaces.

India’s SaaS story isn’t ending. But it is being rewritten. The builders of the last wave see it early. That’s why they’re leaving first.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world. Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

“Tanashahi Nahi Chalegi”: Gig Workers Union Calls For Nationwide Strike On December 25, 31

Gig workers across India are gearing up for a nationwide strike on December 25 and 31, called by the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union to protest unsafe work conditions, low pay, and the absence of social security.

The union is demanding transparent wage structures, an end to risky “10-minute delivery” models, and a stop to arbitrary ID blocking and penalties without due process.

Read more here

“Mushqil Waqt Commando Sakht”: Add Women-Only Ride Option, Says Govt To Cab Aggregators

The government has asked cab aggregators to introduce a women-only ride option, tightening the rules around passenger safety and choice.

Under fresh amendments by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to the Motor Vehicles Aggregators Guidelines, 2025, platforms must also enable voluntary tipping only after a trip ends. Crucially, aggregators are now responsible for ensuring the full tip reaches drivers without deductions.

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“Kaddu Katega, Sab Mein Batega”: Dhan buys back Rs 50 Cr worth ESOP from 180 employees

Stockbroking and investment platform Dhan has bought back nearly ₹50 Cr worth of ESOPs, offering liquidity to around 180 employees, sources told us.

The company funded the buyback entirely from internal reserves, a move enabled by sustained profitability over the last three years. In a market where cash conservation is fashionable, Dhan is quietly using profits to reward the people who helped build it.

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1. EV-focused fintech startup Turno is set to raise ₹50 Cr or $5.5 Mn in a pre-Series B round led by Stellaris Ventures, with participation from B Capital, Quona Accion Inclusion Fund, and BII. The funding will be raised via the issuance of 19,604 CCPS, as per its RoC filings.

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2. Wint Wealth is set to raise ₹120 Cr in a Series B round led by Vertex Ventures, valuing the Bengaluru-based startup at around ₹700 Cr, its first major fundraise in over three and a half years.

   Read more here