Around 300 to 400 startups have offices or work out of co-working spaces in a 4-km radius here
PVR Cinemas in Bengaluru's Forum Mall is a multiplex like any other in most ways: the same plush seats, cursory se curity checks and overpriced popcorn. But there is something unique about it: it's possibly the only cinema hall in India that shows ads for software developer tools before the screening of movies and during intermission. “Nowhere else, even in Bengaluru, have I seen ads for modelling tools such as IBM's Rational Rose, which is used extensively by startups. To my mind, this is one of the most subtle yet tangible markers of Koramangala's status as a start-up hub,“ says Sharad Sharma, an angel investor who has invested in more than two dozen startups, and co-founder of iSPIRT Foundation, a start-up thinktank based in Bengaluru.
Of late, Koramangala, a quiet, elegant Bengaluru neighbourhood, has been getting quite a lot of attention some of it global. While startup founders and VCs from Silicon Valley watch activities here with interest, international media has been writing about it too. Its pubs and cafés are passing into legend -one particular café, a Costa Coffee outlet on one of the neighbourhood's main arterial roads, is already known as the place where startup founders congregate every day of the week, where VCs often meet potential investees and scout for new talent, and where there are reported sightings of Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, whose office is just a few metres down the road.Recently , Valerie Wagoner, co-founder and CEO of ZipDial, a pioneering mobile marketing and analytics company , tweeted: “Tip for Investors in India: Hang out at Costa Coffee in Koramangala in Bangalore. At least 8 companies being started!“ In a way , Flipkart's Bansals have a lot to do with this story . Although Koramangala had become attractive as many as 20 years ago when the first bunch of tech startups and smaller software companies opened offices here attracted by low rents and a better quality of life than the CBD area, it was Flipkart's choice of this area to start operations -initially , from an apartment -in the mid-2000s that really catapulted Koramangala to a startup hotspot. Today , the e-commerce Unicorn (as a tech startup valued at billion dollars or more is called), despite being in the process of consolidating its employee base in a tech park nearby , continues to have its corporate HQ in the area.
Flipkart isn't the only `born in Koramangala' startup. Recently, the area has seen the emergence of food delivery outfit Swiggy , which has received funding from Yuri Milner; Newshunt, which aims to be India's Flipboard; LocalOye, a $5mfunded professional services locator; HackerEarth, a talent search company aimed at finding programmers; payment gateway Instamojo; community-based housing search startup Grabhouse; and ZipDial, which was acquired by Twitter recently. Then there are those who have moved, like Ola which chose to shift base from Mumbai to Koramangala.
The area also has scores of sharedseat offices, VC and investor HQs, and smart co-working and networking spaces such as Tech Hub, an international chain that regularly hosts events and meet-ups, as well as Ispirt, which evangelizes In dia's software product ecosystem.
It's not that Koramangala is the only area in Bengaluru that houses startups but a look at a startup map of the city (yes, there is one) will tell you that the density is higher here than anywhere else. Its sister neighbourhood HSR Layout is also fast developing as a major hub, with many newer startups moving there (PayTm opened its Bengaluru office here recently). “The area that one can call `greater Koramangala' and encompasses localities within a 4-5 km radius of this area is seeing unprecedented startup activity . It has become the default location of choice of most startups, whose founders are attracted by the young, vibrant and cosmopolitan atmosphere of the area and the growing ecosystem of investors and programming talent,“ says serial entrepre neur K Ganesh, who has promoted and invested in several successful Bengalurubased startups such as Portea Medical, TutorVista, BigBasket.com, HomeLane.com, and FreshMenu.com -all located in or within 2-3 km of Koramangala. “It's a virtuous cycle that feeds on itself -the presence of so many startups encourages restaurants and food startups, which in turn attracts other founders. In fact, when we were recruiting for TutorVista and Portea, the interviews were done at Koramangala club,“ adds Ganesh.
According to Virendra Gupta, founder and MD of Newshunt, a vernacular news and content aggregator, the “informality and casual atmosphere“ of Koramangala is attractive to entrepreneurs. “We have moved five offices within the last few years as we grew bigger, and each time we only looked at this area. For employees, it is accessible from all parts of the city . And most importantly , there is a casual, energetic vibe here that would be lacking in an IT Park or SEZ, which often have this `factory' kind of feeling,“ says Gupta.
“There are startup clusters in several Indian cities, such as Baner Road in Pune, Udyog Vihar in the NCR, and Powai in Mumbai. Koramangala-HSr is one such important cluster, where the startup density is very high,“ says Dev Khare, MD of VC fund Lightspeed Venture Partners's Indian arm. Although Khare is based in Delhi, he travels very often to Bengaluru and most of his meetings are done at Koramangala cafés.
Amarpreet Kalkat, co-founder of Frrole, a social media analytics company , says their office is actually an independent house on rent. “We didn't want an `office-office'. In our street alone, there are at least seven to eight startups and other small businesses. In Koramangala, there is literally a startup every few metres. Even the brokers know what you are looking for now,“ says Kalkat.
