India’s Silicon Valley seems to be losing steam.
In the first six months of 2016, startups in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) attracted almost twice the amount of investments raised by those in India’s technology capital, Bengaluru. The Delhi NCR firms account for more than half the total $1.8 billion raised by Indian startups in 2016 so far, according to data from research firm Tracxn.
Bengaluru has been home to the Indian offices of many global technology companies for over three decades. So, around a decade back when the startup culture flowered in India, the southern Indian city was the obvious choice for most entrepreneurs thanks to its existing talent pool.
Today, Bengaluru houses nearly 30% of the country’s technology startups, including big ones such as Flipkart, Ola, and InMobi. The city has the world’s second-fastest growing startup ecosystem by some estimates, and ranks 15th on a list of the largest startup ecosystems globally.
However, in recent years—following the success of some big players such as e-commerce firm Snapdeal and online restaurant search company Zomato—Delhi NCR has emerged as a new alternative.
In fact, six of the top-10 startup investments in 2016 so far were made in Delhi NCR, and just three in Bengaluru:
The average startup investment size was also the highest in Delhi during January-June 2016, while Bengaluru ranked third.