Delhi-NCR Beats Bengaluru and Mumbai as the City has the Highest Count of Startups

Bengaluru and Mumbai have been called startup hubs where most of the startup companies originate and preferably grow over the years. However, there is an inclusion of another startup hub this year i.e. Delhi-NCR. 

Delhi-NCR is the region that is adjoined to Noida, Faridabad, and Gurugram. Further, it is a region where most of the startup companies and unicorns have grown as compared to two startup hubs, Mumbai and Bengaluru. 

Presently, there are ten unicorns based in Delhi-NCR region estimating at approximately $1 billion which have added one after the other since 2013, while an aggregate of nine and two unicorns have added in Bengaluru and Mumbai respectively in the first half of this year, according to Turbocharging Delhi-NCR Startup Ecosystem report. 

Further, the report states that an aggregate of 7,000 startup companies has been established in the Delhi-NCR region since 2009. During the same period, 5,234 startup companies were operating in Bengaluru, 3,829 startup companies in Mumbai and 1,940 startup companies in Hyderabad. 

Delhi-NCR Region--a New Startup Hub of India 

As per the report, there are 10 unicorns established in the Delhi-NCR region, which makes a cumulative private market estimation of the startup companies to $46-$56 million. Whilst an aggregate valuation of startups in Bengaluru rise to $32-$37 billion and the total valuation of startups in Mumbai reaches to $10-$12 billion. The startups based in the Delhi-NCR region are InfoEdge, Indiamart, OYO, and MakeMyTrip among others.    

Further, the report states that the pace, with which startup companies have been establishing over the past 2 years, has slowed down in India, including the Delhi-NCR region. The dearth of affordable co-working spaces, a dearth of technical skills, dearth of seed-funding and early-stage funding are some of the reasons for the decrease in the founding of startups across India, as reported by the daily news, Mint. 

“Accelerating the growth of the ecosystem will require a lot more seed and early-stage funding, creating more affordable co-working spaces, increasing the number and quality of accelerators and incubators, developing deeper pools of technical talent and developing sector-specific policies," President of TiE Delhi-NCR, Rajan Anandan told the daily news. 

Changing ‘Delhi-NCR Startup Hub’ model 

The cited report made several recommendations to improve the overall model of the Delhi-NCR region as a startup hub. It suggests that focus should be brought on several important areas, inclusive of building 3 startup hubs, one in Gurugram, Noida, and Delhi along with T-Hub, which was initiated by the Telangana regime in 2015. Secondly, it proposed to increase seed and early-stage investments in Delhi-NCR. 

One of the important ideas is to make the Delhi-NCR region as an EV (Electric Vehicle) hub. This comprises of creating a digital window to quicken the recertification process of electric vehicles and building a special EV (electronic cell), amongst others.