Bengaluru Has Welcomed Technology and Talent with Open Arms: 10 Top Indian Startups that Stemmed from Bengaluru (2019)

There are many reasons behind the fact that startups flourish more in Bangalore than any other city in India. One of them which is the most important one is the city is more economical than cities like Delhi or Mumbai. Bangalore is way affordable in terms of business expenses like rentals and other essentials. When you cut out your cost of rental then you can surely invest more money into your idea which is an advantage you get in Bangalore.

Known as the Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore is a hub for IT people who are the most important part of any kind of startup these days. Bangalore provides a better opportunity to come across these talented people than any other city in India so startups find it easier to find the right people for its needs.

The work culture of Bangalore is perfectly suited for start-ups. People are flexible and open-minded about their expectations regarding companies, jobs and roles. They are willing to experiment and try out new things. Such characteristics make it a wonderful place to create new companies and create exciting new products.

While other cities are more inclined towards coffee dates and nonsense gossips, Bangalore is developing the idea of work dates. You can always spot cafes which are suitable enough to discuss work over coffee.

Moreover, Bangalore has also developed a sharing culture where you can share designers, developers and other people with other startups. This definitely saves a lot of money for you in your initial days and this is why startup companies in Bangalore flourish so much.

When we talk about the best startups in Bangalore, one can’t simply ignore Flipkart from this list. Flipkart came into the market in 2007 and in no time, it became the giant e-commerce platform in India and has been giving really tough competition to Amazon.

The company was started by two IIT Delhi Alumni, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal which initially focused on selling books online. However, over time, it grew more and more and now sell a lot of other products like clothing, lifestyle, consumer electronics and more.

Over time, Flipkart kept on acquiring more and more companies like Myntra, Jabong, PhonePe etc. and now currently Walmart owns 77% controlling stakes of Flipkart. This startup which started on such a small scale is currently a business of $2.9 billion.

Ola is a Transportation Network Company which was initiated as a startup in 2010 in Bangalore. Within a span of 8 hours, the company managed to reach great heights and the current valuation of Ola shares the fact that it is worth $6.2 billion.

It was started by Bhavish Aggarwal as an online cab aggregator in Mumbai but now it is based in Bangalore. Currently, Ola provides services like peer to peer ridesharing, food delivery, taxi service and ride serving hailing.

Currently, Ola has expanded to more than 170 cities and has a network of more than 1,000,000 vehicles all across India. Ola has even expanded overseas with operations in countries like New Zealand, Australia and the UK. Despite being started in Mumbai, Ola flourished more in Bangalore and currently headquartering from Bangalore itself.

The idea of Swiggy started in 2014 and with their unique idea of food delivery from restaurant to consumers, they quickly grew quite popular. This startup is based in Koramangala, Bengaluru and was established by Engineers Nandan Reddy, Sriharsha Majesty and Rahul Jaimini.

According to the company, their idea was to connect almost all the restaurants with customers and delivery service and online tracking made it possible for them.

Their idea was so attractive that they generated $2 million in funding within 8 months of their venture and still growing in so many cities in India. Currently, they are operating in over 44 cities in India and have a valuation of about $3.3 billion. In terms of success and growth, Swiggy is one of the fastest-growing startups in India.

One of the top startups in Bangalore, as well as super innovative one, is BigBasket. It is the largest online grocery store in India and although this idea sounded so vague in the initial years, currently it is being seen as one of the greatest advantages of technology.

BigBasket was started in 2011 and founded by Hari Menon, VS Sudhakar and Vipul Parekh in Bangalore where their current headquarter is. This startup came at a time when technology was still unfolding in India.

Currently, BigBasket operates in about 20 cities. They have a partnership with over 1000 brands and they offer more than 18,000 grocery items on their online shopping site right now. The company is all set of raising funding of about $1 billion which will make it the topmost grocery startup in India.

Every person who shops online in India knows about Myntra very well. This is a platform which literally redefined the apparel shopping in India and made its way comfortable than earlier times. Myntra is a fashion e-commerce giant having its headquarter in Bangalore and currently being owned by Flipkart.

It was founded in 2007 and earlier it used to sell personalized gift items on its platform. Myntra was kick-started by Mukesh Bansal with Ashutosh Lawania and Vineet Saxena. It was in 2011 that it took over the fashion and lifestyle needs of people on its platform and never looked back. Currently, they provide access to more than 1000 brands on its platform with more than 2,00,000 products. This is a startup flourished in Bangalore which went on to become quite popular just like Flipkart.

Quikr came as the ultimate alternative to Craigslist in India and became popular in no time. Very few people know that it all started in Bangalore in 2008. Founded by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas, this classified advertising startup soon became a prominent household name.

Currently, Quikr is providing listing from more than 900 cities in India. Their major sectors are household goods, cars, real estate, phones, electronics, education and other services.

As of 2014, Quikr managed to raise $350 million from its funding which is a really huge deal for this platform. Currently, it has 5 acquisitions including CommonFloor. Over time, Quikr started to provide missed call and instant messaging services too among others.

The next one that we have in our list is Common Floor which is another startup which kicked off in Bangalore. This startup is about creating an online real estate portal which was started in 2007 by Sumit Jain, Vikas Malpani and Lalit Mangal.

Common Floor started as a small scale idea whose sole purpose was to provide apartment management to communities. This platform went on to grow amazingly mostly because it connected tenants and rentals easily according to the requirements.

Common Floor came at a time when no one actually thought of this idea and hence it made a big difference into the real estate market. They also acquired funding from Google Capital and Tiger Global too but later on it was acquired by Quikr for $200 million.

Another one amongst the top startups in Bangalore is Practo which came up with a unique and impactful concept and idea. It was established by Engineering graduates Abhinav Lal and Shashank ND in 2008. Of course, it took quite some time to get this startup the recognition it has today but they got successful for sure.

Practo is a platform which allows users to make appointments with doctors, get online consultation and to digitize their medical records. This healthcare platform went on to become a big hit and currently, 50 million appointments are made through their platform every single year which connects people to more than 200,000 healthcare providers. Practo brought a huge change into the way healthcare is seen in India and it also inspired so many other small platforms like these to grow too.

Amongst all the startups mentioned here in this list, InMobi is the most different of all. This is an Indian enterprise platform for marketers which works on a global level. Basically, it is an Adtech company which gives a tough competition to Facebook and Google in mobile ads space.

InMobi has a valuation of about $2.5 billion currently and although it is not as popular as its popular competitors the digits speak for themselves. It was started in 2007 by founders Naveen Tiwari, Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta and Abhay Singhal. Based out in Bangalore, InMobi currently operates 22 offices in 12 countries in 5 continents across the globe. With their unique idea of mobile advertising solutions, they have so many acquisitions as per now.

Talking about the top startups in Bangalore 2019 then we can’t forget to name HackerEarth. This startup is only 6 years old but has Adobe, Wipro, InMobi like giants as its clients. HackerEarth provides software solutions to big organizations which helps in management and technical recruitment.

This startup was founded in 2012 by two IIT Roorkee alumni Sachin Gupta and Vivek Prakash. Earlier it used to be called MyCareerStack and managed to raise $4.5 million with the help of funding alone. Till date, HackerEarth has organized more than 1000 Hackathons and more than 10,000 programming challenges. Their prime focus remains on providing an automatic technical talent test through which skilled people can be analyzed and hired. Their current headquarter is in California, USA but they have a lot of branches in India too.

So, now you know that some of the best startups in India actually started from Bangalore and then went on to spread their arms all across the country and even globe. However, none of them are overnight success stories and if you are thinking about planning a startup then you definitely need more than just an idea. Here are some eye-opening things to know before you even think about a startup.

As we said, apparently a startup is not just an idea. This is an initial stage only and what matters the most is the implementation process. An idea can always strike in your mind but you must have a higher knowledge of implementation if you want to make something big out of this idea. So, if you are not ready to do some really hard work, a startup is not for you.

Following people who are making it big in the startup industry is good but copying them is not cool at all. You would not want to put your money and soul into something which you do not even like doing, your 9 to 5 job is already enough for it. Rather do something which you really like and where you actually find happiness in life because you would be doing that for the rest of your life now.

Almost all the top startups in Bangalore were never an overnight sensation. It took years and years of perseverance to make them what they are now. You must know this fact that millions of dollars won’t be coming to your doorstep right after implementing your idea. This will surely take a lot of time and mostly more than what you can imagine.

And finally, the most important thing you should keep in mind is that consistency is the soul of a startup. You would have to do 18-20 hours of hard work somedays and it will be worth doing if you keep on working tirelessly on your idea. You might not get success today but with the consistency, you will surely get it someday.