From IIT classrooms to SME workshops, and flexible subscriptions: Autodesk bets on India’s innovation pipeline

Autodesk

India’s innovation pipeline is expanding rapidly, with students, startups, and SMEs pushing the boundaries of design, manufacturing, and AI-led workflows. Autodesk leaders Jeff Kinder, EVP of Product Development and Manufacturing Solutions, and Srinath Jonalagadda, VP of Data Management, outlined how it is aligning its tools and business models to serve this ecosystem. The company is focusing on education, affordability, and government collaboration to ensure its platforms like Fusion become more accessible and useful for Indian companies.

India as a growth market

India’s startup and manufacturing ecosystem is entering a new phase, driven by rapid adoption of AI and demand for advanced digital tools. For Autodesk, this shift is less about competing with local players and more about widening access to its own platforms.

Jeff Kinder, Executive Vice President of Product Development and Manufacturing Solutions, described India as a market where accessibility will define success. “We partnered with a lot of educational institutions like IITs to make sure that we’re putting our tools out there to give it free to students and to educators, so that we can train them on the tools of the next generation,” he said.

Building skills in classrooms

Autodesk’s strategy starts with education, ensuring that tomorrow’s engineers and entrepreneurs are trained on its design and manufacturing platform. “They get all the Fusion. So I want to give and the free product for them is all the Fusion,” Kinder added. By embedding Fusion in classrooms, Autodesk hopes to build a generation of skilled users who can directly apply these tools as they enter the workforce or launch startups.

Flexible models for startups and SMEs

Affordability and flexibility are critical for early-stage companies. Autodesk has introduced a subscription model for Fusion designed with these needs in mind.

“We have intentionally created a business model for Fusion, which is unlike anything else we see in the market. The price point by far is the most accessible for subscription,” said Srinath Jonalagadda, Vice President of Data Management.

The model allows companies to pay based on usage. “Even going beyond the price point, we have flexible ways in which you can use the offering. You can use it on a daily basis, a weekly basis. That’s the consumption model—that’s an opportunity,” he explained.

Kinder added that Fusion helps startups avoid costly investments in multiple platforms. “A customer with our competitor products might have to buy SolidWorks, Mastercam, EPDM. When you start to add up all the things that Fusion can do, and compare that to the cost of buying those systems—which is not so easy to make work together—Fusion is very accessible.”

Supporting local industry
Autodesk has also aligned with India’s Make in India initiative, partnering with states such as Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to strengthen local manufacturing capabilities.