Bengaluru’s virtues were extolled by Karnataka Government Secretary Ekroop Caur on Tuesday at a roadshow at The Fullerton hotel, during which she invited Singapore business leaders to invest more in the Indian city and attend next month’s Bengaluru Tech Summit.
“With a projected GDP of 8.5 per cent, Bengaluru will be the world’s fastest-growing city for the next 15 years,” she said, quoting the 2024 Bangalore Innovation Report. “It has the largest AI talent pool in India and a quarter of the country’s digital talent. It is the start-up capital of India and the top achiever in ease of doing business.
“For a city to produce successful entrepreneurs, it needs to provide the right policy support and allied infrastructure that can nurture innovation. With the creation of the Startup Vision Group Karnataka, we have aimed to bring together the brightest minds in the ecosystem.”
Bengaluru is ranked 21st in the Top 30 Global Startup Ecosystems cities list, and stands fourth among Asian cities in terms of the number of high-growth companies present.
According to the Bangalore Innovation Report, curated by venture capital company 3one4 Capital and the Startup Vision Group, the 10 cities with the highest GDP growth rates between 2020 and 2035 are projected to be based in Asia, with Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi featuring among them.
Ms Caur, who is secretary in the department of electronics, information technology, biotechnology and science and technology, said that since 2010, Bengaluru has seen a substantial growth of start-ups, with around 18,000 to date.
She also said Singapore has been one of the key stakeholders in the development of Bengaluru as a global tech hub over the past 30 years.
“We have had a very deep association with Singapore right from the beginning of the tech revolution in Bengaluru,” said Ms Caur. “We are natural allies and we can accelerate a lot of business growth in Bengaluru via Singapore.”
Major Singapore companies such as Capitaland, DBS, Keppel, Singapore Airlines and Sembcorp Utilities already have a substantial presence in Bengaluru. Ms Caur said smaller Singapore companies could further connect with corporations around the world through Bengaluru, while also highlighting that the local talent has the capability to work globally.
Singapore company DevBoost by iTechGenic Global, an engineering management platform that helps engineering leaders align their work with strategic business objectives, is about to venture into Bengaluru.
Its co-founder and CEO Tushar Doshi said: “Bengaluru is the No. 1 city in so many aspects of the IT industry. It probably has the largest concentration of software developers and teams and is one of the biggest Indian metro cities for DevOps, which is a space where DevBoost makes a very strong impact.”
Singapore venture solutions company BeyondSeed, a growth engine designed to help start-up founders move from Seed to Series A by connecting them to dedicated professionals, describes Bengaluru as the ideal spot for start-ups.
Its founder and CEO Kuldeep Mirani said: “Bengaluru offers not just business opportunities but also the best talent in India. The local people are well-educated and English-speaking. The city is also not expensive like Mumbai which makes it conducive for doing business.”
Following Ms Caur’s presentation, a 23-member delegation from Singapore is set to attend the Bengaluru Tech Summit at the Bangalore Palace from Nov 19 to 21. It is expected to see more than 25,000 business attendees and 50,000 visitors.
