Pulkit Sharma || The CEO Magazine
In this start-up ecosystem of India, Chennai is the city which has the most talented and well-skilled people. Despite being considered as an underdog in this startup ecosystem of India, this city has produced many amazing companies like Freshdesk and Indix which has a great demand in the international market.
Chennai is a city known as the home for the automobile industry but in recent years, it has become the hub for SAAS (Software as a service) and attracting young and talented entrepreneurs from every field. This is making Chennai one of the hottest markets for people who want to build their own business in a competitive but hassle-free climate. Below we have provided why Chennai is becoming an authority in this start-up ecosystem of India and why it is the best city for starting a business.
Chennai – A Hub for Start-ups
Chennai is the 4th largest city in India by terms of population with almost 5 million people living there and it is also known as the second-largest IT development centre in India after Bangalore which makes it best for building new and innovative start-ups.
Chennai is rapidly growing as an ecosystem for start-ups as it has acquired many accelerators and incubators like PayPal's incubators and Start Tank. Not to forget the increasing opportunities for funding by Chennai Angels and TVS Capital Funds Limited. With these emerging opportunities, Chennai is not only a good place to start a company but also to scale the company.
Starting a Business in Chennai
The first thing you need to start your business not only in Chennai but anywhere is to have an idea that can bring value to the lives of people and it should be scalable. Secondly, learn from your environment as every entrepreneur should be aware of the trends in their respective market.
Latest Trends in Chennai Start-up Ecosystem
Chennai has an environment and ecosystem which provides different opportunities in the market. One of the major trends of its market is cloud-based applications. ZOHO a leading cloud-based application in the world that offers online business, network and IT infrastructure management applications is also a start-up from Chennai and it is giving a tough competition to Salesforce.
In the robust cloud application market, Chennai offers an abundance of opportunities to various hardware start-ups because of its position as a leading auto manufacturing centre.
Well, these are the reasons why Chennai is becoming an authority in the start-up ecosystem of India. In the last few years, numerous start-ups have been established in Chennai with a motive to reshape the world. So here are few of those start-ups which are redefining the scope of doing business in Chennai.
Best Start-ups in Chennai
Freshdesk is SAAS (software as a service) which provides everything which a company needs. It was started in the year 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy. Over 150,000 companies around the world are using their software and they have also raised around $100 million in a Series G funding round led by Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital.
This is another Chennai startup which was founded in the year 2008 by Shetty, Arjun Shetty and Rati Shetty as a financial marketplace. Total investment in this start-up was around $110 Million. Former Deputy Governor of RBI, S. Mundra is now the advisor of the company.
Chargebee is a subscription and recurring billing solution. It uses a plug-and-play feature which allows businesses to automate their invoice, billing and leverage transactional emails to enhance communication with their customers from various industries. This company was founded in the year 2011 by Krish Subramanian, KP Saravanan, Thiyagarajan T and Rajaraman S.
YELDI is a company based on NFC technology which was founded by a duo of father and daughter named Ra. Arjunamurthy and Lakshmideepa in the year 2015. This is a solution for handling different payments and security access applications. They recently partnered with Paytm which is a digital wallet platform to develop their Paytm tap cards. This will allow the user of Paytm to make payments by tapping the card at the machine.
This is a famous online jewellery portal which was founded in the year 2007. Caratlane provides the biggest collection of solitaire gems with unique designs. They eliminate the cost of inventory and real estate by directly sourcing from the vendors. They gain popularity as the Titan group acquired a majority of its stake in the year 2016. They are also associated with TATA sure which is one of the major reason why Caratlane achieved massive success in a short period.
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