India’s startup ecosystem is undergoing a geographic transformation. While Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi retain their dominance in deal volume, the most interesting companies of the next decade may be emerging from cities most investors would not have been watching five years ago.
Our documentary team spent six months travelling to Jaipur, Coimbatore, Indore, Lucknow, and Bhubaneswar to meet the founders, understand their ecosystems, and ask whether India’s Tier-2 city startup boom is real or overhyped.
What We Found
The story is genuinely different this time. Lower costs, a growing talent pool of IIT and NIT graduates choosing to stay home, and digital infrastructure that has made geography less relevant are combining to create real companies with real revenues. Three of the five companies we profiled are now valued above $50 million.