Bengaluru: Tech lovers’ paradise in the making

Lalbhais is the most rooted business family in Ahmedabad. Kulin Lalbhai, who belongs to the family, had a tough time when he decided to move to Bengaluru for his new venture. He had to go through a series of disapprovals, but the 29-year-old finally moved out with his wife and daughter.

Many thought he made this move because he split up with the family, but Kulin disagrees. He says, “It's nothing like that. My family is very dear to me I'm still in Ahmedabad at least once a month. But I realised I need to be in Bengaluru 90% of the time for this venture. It's a sacrifice for all of us."

He told Economic Times that how his family business always had a major presence in Bengaluru, but the family never felt the need of having someone based over there.

The garment brand’s major manufacturing has been done in Bengaluru and the CEO of Arvind Lifestyle has traditionally operated from the city. But in its expansion plan, the another creation, Arvind Internet has now started creating an ‘omni-channel’ that combines the group's physical retail presence with eCommerce and the leadership needs here are very different from the garment business.

"The tech business is driven by entrepreneurial energy," says Kulin.

"It's not easy attracting people, putting together a team. You need to be there yourself, to lead them," he added.

It’s not just about Lalbhais, over the past couple of years, most of the ambitious and young enthusiasts have shifted their base to the city.
Recently, Paytm founder Vijay Sharma made and announcement that he is planning to move to Bengaluru.

Kunal Shah of Freecharge, Pranay Chulet, of Quikr and Pankhuri Shrivastava, founder of Grabhouse are three Mumbai entrepreneurs who moved to Bengaluru recently. Shah has lived in Mumbai all his life. "My operations were in Bengaluru anyway and I was spending 60% of my time there. Any change is hard, but I think this change will be good for me. When you're creating a disruptive business, you're better off being away from the old companies," Shah says.

"You have to be here if you need tech talent," says Pranay Chulet, founder of Quikr. "In Mumbai, we could find marketing people, but we were not able to hire enough engineers. Since I've moved to Bengaluru, I've plugged into the local ecosystem and created a team of 200 engineers."
Shishir Baijal, MD Knight Frank India estimates that the cost of housing here is half that of Mumbai and commercial space is 40% cheaper.

While Quikr found it hard to attract engineers from Bengaluru to Mumbai, it had no problem at all persuading its existing tech team to move to Bengaluru. Maybe it's the opportunity to work with like-minded people that are reimagining business or maybe it's the weather, but young engineers are all too happy to move to Bengaluru.

The city's ecosystem includes venture capitalists (VCs), startup accelerators, social impact funds and an urban market that serves as an experimentation lab. When Vishal Bali quit his job as the CEO of Fortis Healthcare International in Singapore to turn entrepreneur last year, he decided to locate his company, Medwell Ventures, in Bengaluru. He has since bought Nightingales, a local home healthcare company, and is expanding it pan-India.

"Technology will play a major role in healthcare in the future, which is why many new healthcare start-ups are in Bengaluru," he says. "The city is also good for proof of concept. We were able to prove our idea works in Bengaluru. We couldn't have done this if we started in a city like Mumbai, where the cost of learning is high."