In the making: 7 more billion-dollar IT companies after 15 in the past 10 years

Experts say this trend is structurally changing the competitive picture of India’s $280-billion IT services sector, as the divide between Tier-1 and mid-tier firms begins to blur.

Over half a dozen mid-sized firms are expected to hit the $1-billion annual revenue mark, a major shift in the structure and competitiveness of India’s information technology (IT) sector. This comes on the heels of 15 Indian IT services companies surpassing the milestone over the past decade, 10 of them within the last five years alone.

The seven mid-tier IT firms that are soon likely to enter the billion-dollar revenue club are Firstsource, Cyient, Oracle Financial, KPIT, Birlasoft, Zensar, and Tata Technologies.

Experts say this trend is structurally changing the competitive picture of India’s $280-billion IT services sector, as the divide between Tier-1 and mid-tier firms begins to blur.

Industry veteran Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, and former chairman of Cognizant India, believes this growth has been driven by three primary factors: the migration of senior leadership from Tier-1 companies to mid-sized firms, the growing role of private equity in shaping business strategy, and the accelerated adoption of digital technologies.

“That trend (leaders leaving large IT firms to helm smaller ones) continues even today with these leaders building all the muscles needed to gracefully scale these companies,” Ramamoorthy wrote in a post.

He highlighted that executives from companies like Infosys, Cognizant, and HCLTech have played a vital role in scaling mid-tier firms to billion-dollar firms.

Meanwhile, between 2015 and 2020, EPAM, L&T Infotech, Mphasis, Virtusa, and Mindtree broke into the billion-dollar revenue league, setting the stage for the next wave of growth.

From 2021 to 2025, this momentum continued with firms such as Hexaware, EXL Services, Globant, Coforge, Persistent Systems, L&T Technology Services, WNS, Endava, Nagarro SE, and Sonata Software crossing the milestone.

For example, former Cognizant President, Global Delivery and Digital Systems, Debashis Chatterjee, joined as CEO of the erstwhile Mindtree and then continued with the merged entity: LTIMindtree.

Similarly, R Srikrishna joined Hexaware Technologies in 2014 after being elevated to the role of President in HCLTech. Under Srikrishna’s leadership, Hexaware focused on automation and cloud, nearly doubled revenue.

Another noteworthy movement was in the form of Sudhir Singh, who was appointed CEO of NIIT Technologies (now Coforge) in 2017, after serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Genpact and serving at Infosys for nine years in various roles, including global head of BFSI and card payment.

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Leadership Migration

Ramamoorthy calls this trend one of the most important developments post-Y2K in the Indian IT sector.

Post-Y2K refers to the period after the year 2000, when the global tech industry expanded after solving the "Y2K bug" that had threatened to disrupt computer systems worldwide.

Earlier, mid-sized firms were often seen as acquisition targets or niche players, many of them are now led by industry veterans who previously held CXO roles at companies like Cognizant, Infosys, HCLTech, and Virtusa.

Experts say these leaders have done more than tighten execution, they’ve enabled mid-tier companies to pitch for transformational, multi-year deals, build repeatable IP, and enter high-growth segments like cloud modernisation, cybersecurity, and, more recently, AI-driven services.

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Blurring of Lines

The traditional Tier-1 versus mid-tier dichotomy is no longer as stark as it once was. As Gaurav Parab, a principal research analyst at consulting firm NelsonHall, points out that these leadership transitions have given mid-tier firms the structural maturity to compete head-on with much larger peers. More importantly, clients themselves are reassessing what they value most.

“In a world where AI is changing delivery paradigms, leaner, sharper firms are increasingly seen as capable strategic partners,” Parab told Moneycontrol. “It’s akin to how drones disrupted the traditional battlefield: speed, focus, and adaptability are proving just as valuable as scale.”

Abhishek Singh, Partner at Everest Group, agrees that the infusion of Tier-1 leadership has significantly raised the operational and strategic ceiling for mid-tier firms.

However, he is cautious that while mid-tier firms are catching up fast, Tier-1 companies still retain advantages in scale, global reach, deeper alliances with hyperscalers, and the ability to underwrite price competition due to larger margins and investment pools.

Private Equity’s Play

Private equity (PE) has been another force multiplier in the rise and rise of mid-tier firms, as pointed out by Ramamoorthy.

Deals involving EQT (formerly Baring PE Asia), Blackstone, and Carlyle in companies like Hexaware, Mphasis, and Coforge are a testament to this phenomenon.

The PE playbook typically includes aggressive growth targets, focused acquisitions, and margin expansion via cost optimization, experts say. But they are divided on whether this model is fully repeatable across the next wave of aspiring billion-dollar firms.

Parab argues that the PE-led model only works if firms resist the temptation to grow through rampant acquisitions. “PE strategies like acquisitions and margin expansion through cost optimization bring their own set of integration challenges and cultural issues and a half-baked rush job can negatively impact talent which, come what may, remain the most important ingredient in the IT industry,” he further said.

Singh echoes this sentiment, pointing to the short-term theory often built into PE investment cycles.

“The typical five-to-seven-year horizon can incentivise efficiency at the cost of long-term bets on innovation, IP creation, and relationship depth,” he said.

What Comes Next

While seven more firms are now poised to go past the billion-dollar mark, mid-tier firms are commanding the same level of boardroom attention for the first time. This is by competing for the same talent, and being measured by similar yardsticks as their Tier-1 counterparts.

As Ramamoorthy highlights that the industry is witnessing a “graceful scaling” of companies that were once seen as niche players.