Is Hyderabad the next Bengaluru?

Q3 activity shows Hyderabad to be one of the hottest destinations of the quarter with investments in local startups, business expansion in the region, as well as foreign companies spreading in the tech city.

According to Knight Frank, in their latest Data Centre Q3 2022 report, published in partnership with DC Byte, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Chennai hold nearly 1,100MW of total IT Power, out of which, 100MW is live capacity as on Q3 2022. These three markets are projected to touch an additional 453 MW of IT Power, which is in early stages of planning right now.

Read more: Q3 Progress: Who did well? Who didn’t? & Why?

In November, Anvayaa, an Indian IoT and AI tech-based 3600 personalized elderly care platform, doubled office space in Hyderabad to accommodate rapid growth and enhance the services with tech-enabled solutions.

A Teeming Startup Ecosystem

Hyderabad is teeming with startups, especially technology based. In December, We Founder Circle (WFC), an early-stage startup investment platform announced its aggressive startup investment plans for the Andhra-Telangana regions. The platform’s targets are to invest in over 50 startups in the region in the next five years and facilitate funding for at least eight in 2023.

In fact, WFC already has more than five startups in its portfolio hailing from the region. Considering that Hyderabad is becoming a tech hub and a lot of innovative startups are rising from the land, WFC recently announced Invstt Trust Fund to cater to the ingenious startup business models.

For a lot of startup verticals like auto service, Web3, SAAS, etc., Hyderabad has become the launchpad

Neeraj Tyagi, Co-founder of We Founder Circle

“For a lot of startup verticals like auto service, Web3, SAAS, etc., Hyderabad has become the launchpad,” says Neeraj Tyagi, Co-founder of We Founder Circle. “The best examples of the success we see for startups in the Hyderabad-Telangana regions are Hesa and CUSMAT. They are taking the country by storm.”

WFC invested in as well as facilitated their last two funding rounds.

“It is about further propelling the growth of emerging technologies and contributing to the rising tech hub in the country. We are foreseeing Hyderabad as the next ‘Bengaluru’,” he adds.

“A lot of investors hail from Tier II and III cities in India – in fact, the majority of them,” says Gaurav VK Singhvi, Co-founder, WFC. “We will be coming up with aggressive plans to empower the investors from Tier II and III areas in Andhra – Telangana region.”

WFC has also partnered with local ecosystems such as T-Hub, to boost the platform in democratizing early-stage startup investments.

“We believe local ecosystems play a significant role in building the startup ecosystem of a region and we plan to create more of such partnerships,” he adds.

Foreign Investments

Hyderabad has been bringing up the heat in the ecosystem by attracting lucrative foreign investment too. At the beginning of Q3, in October, NYC based Infor, an industry cloud company, expanded its India operations with the opening of its new development centre (DC) of 350,000 sq. ft with the capacity for 3,500 employees, in Hitech City, Hyderabad.

The significance of Hyderabad comes out in the fact that Infor’s India DC is among the company’s two largest locations in the world, with over 3,700 employees in the country that drives key technology innovations to gain a competitive edge and market leadership for the global marketplace.

Hyderabad is fast emerging as a preferred IT hub for technology companies on the backbone of a thriving environment for the local talent pool

KT Rama Rao, the Minister for Information Technology, Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce of Telangana

Infor’s investment will allow it to expand digital technologies such as cloud, mobility, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and IoT. With this expansion, Infor aims to leverage India’s diverse and skilled talent pool to drive digital innovation through expanded teams that span various functions, including engineering, operations, and R&D.

“Hyderabad is fast emerging as a preferred IT hub for technology companies on the backbone of a thriving environment for the local talent pool. We welcome strategic investments by global companies to drive growth opportunities and provide a platform for talent to hone their skills,” said KT Rama Rao, the Minister for Information Technology, Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce of Telangana.

In November, another NYC based company, Annalect India moved to a new, larger office space in Hyderabad to accommodate its continued business growth. Annalect, which celebrated its tenth year in India this year, has three other Centers of Excellence in Gurugram, Bengaluru and Chennai comprising a talent pool of over 1,600 employees. However, currently, there are more than 300 employees in Hyderabad alone.

Read more: Young Indian brands tech up with 3D immersive tech for higher customer engagement

Vishal Srivastava, CEO, Annalect India, said, “When we first came to Hyderabad in September 2021, we were a compact team of 20 Annalectuals. Today, we have a strong workforce of over 300 Annalectuals in Hyderabad, delivering top-notch services across various functions.”

Kiran Guruswami, Chief Operating Officer, Annalect India, said, “For the past year, our Center of Excellence in Hyderabad has been aggressively working towards supporting our partner agencies and their global network in achieving business outcomes. We have successfully implemented effective cross-functional synergies leveraging the best of data and technology, thus enabling operational and quality excellence. I’m certain our strong foothold in Hyderabad will allow us to capitalize on the potential avenues and drive significant business results for our teams.”