A TALE OF 5 CITIES

The lure of reigning start-up hubs, like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi NCT, Chennai and Gurgaon, remains strong even as several Tier II and III cities vie for a larger share in the growth pie. A conducive environment, built by availability of wider talent pool, infrastructure incubators, mentors, investors, etc., lures new and aspiring founders to these cities 

- Vinita Bhatia

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Raj Sahu registered Sysotel.ai, a yield management software company, in his hometown, Rourkela, in Odisha. He soon realised that if he wanted to make his start-up truly click, he needed to have a presence in a metro like Bangalore. "The reason is simple; all the big brands, the talent and the affiliated tech partners are here. Running a start-up from Rourkela would have been difficult, so we decided to shift base," Sahu explains.

Urban centres like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Gurgaon, also the top five cities in the Outlook Start-Ups Outperformers 2023, offer a blend of workforce, networking opportunities and a vibrant entrepreneurial culture. They have established themselves as innovation hubs with a track record of successful start-ups. These factors together act as a major pull for start-up founders looking for mentorship, access to capital and a supportive ecosystem.

Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi/ NCT take up the top three ranks in terms of funding and investment, followed by Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Chennai in that order. This category considers the number of incubators, the maximum funding activity as well as highest total annual revenue earned by growth stage start-ups.

In the category of knowledge edge, which considers details like number of registered businesses, availability of mentors, research and development institutes, growth stage start-ups and TIES funding rounds, the top three cities take the lead.

Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi are the best performers in terms of human capital, which includes the presence of top-ranked educational institutes, employment in the growth stage start-up sector and enrolment and placement in vocational courses. Bangalore has 144 higher education institutes, of which 54 are graded A or above by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, according to the Outlook ranking.