BFSI and NBFC segments have become powerful growth engines for our business: Oracle's Singla

Cloud service database management service provider Oracle India experienced growth in terms of revenues and number of clients in the first half of the financial year. Oracle India’s application grew by 51% in the second quarter ended November 30 and 17% in H1FY25. 

“Our results at the country level have been remarkable. India stands out as one of the top-performing regions in the Asia-Pacific and the contribution from India plays a crucial role in driving the overall revenues of the Asia-Pacific business,” Shailesh Singla, the vice president, Cloud Applications, Oracle India told TechCircle in an interview. 

Singla has been with Oracle for the last 13 years. He was elevated to the Applications business lead for the country in July 2024, before which he was the head of the banking and financial services (BFSI) vertical for Oracle India. In his current role, he manages Oracle’s applications business, which primarily covers enterprise front-facing applications. This includes ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), enterprise planning management, supply chain management, human capital management, and customer experience solutions. He heads a team of over 100 professionals in the region.

Singla further said that BFSI is the fastest-growing vertical, contributing more than 160% growth in H1. “During the last financial year, we added nearly five times the number of BFSI clients compared to the previous five financial years combined. BFSI and NBFC (non-banking financial companies) segments have become powerful growth engines for our business.”

Beyond BFSI, healthcare and IT-ITeS have also emerged as major growth verticals for the company. While the public sector was slow in picking up on the cloud and digital transformation journey, it has quickly emerged as a key focus area for Oracle, Singla added. The company has collaborated with public institutions such as the Department of Income Tax, the Steel Authority of India (SAIL), and the DIKSHA platform.

To cater to local clients, especially in the BFSI and public sector which are bound by strict regulatory norms, Oracle operates two cloud regions in India – one in Mumbai and the other in Hyderabad. Another spokesperson for Oracle India indicated that the company would be announcing more regions in the latter half of 2025. Globally, Oracle has 50 cloud regions, across 25 countries. 

Further, to meet the demand of a growing customer base in India and to expand its footprint of data centers around the world, Oracle-owned Cloud ERP –NetSuite – is opening data centers in the Oracle Cloud Mumbai Region and the Oracle Cloud Hyderabad Region. This will be the first time NetSuite will run on data centers in India. 

GenAI drives growth

Singla said that artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI are playing major roles in growing business for the company and adding more clients.

“We have launched over 100 Generative AI use cases, now integrated across key areas such as finance, supply chain, HR, and CRM. Additionally, we introduced more than 50 AI agents, many of which are already live in our products. These AI agents automate repetitive, low-skill processes, enabling organisations to operate more efficiently without manual intervention,” he said.

Investments in Generative AI are set to increase significantly, as both market trends and analyst insights suggest. “There’s a growing curiosity and demand across the corporate landscape to harness the potential of AI. This will undoubtedly become one of the most critical areas of focus and innovation for OEMs and enterprises alike,” he concluded.

Note: The author was in Mumbai for the Oracle CloudWorld Tour on Oracle’s invitation