Bengaluru continues to anchor India’s startup ecosystem in 2025, whilst different cities steadily achieve floor, in response to the third version of the ‘India’s Prime 200 Self-Made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia’ checklist launched by IDFC FIRST Non-public Banking and Hurun India.

The town stays the main hub each when it comes to founder residences and firm headquarters. A complete of 88 founders on the checklist are based mostly in Bengaluru, whereas 52 corporations are headquartered there. This, nonetheless, represents a decline of 14 corporations from final 12 months, pointing to a gradual diffusion of entrepreneurial exercise throughout the nation.

Mumbai follows carefully, with 83 founders residing within the metropolis and 41 corporations headquartered there, up by 5 from the earlier 12 months. Gurugram ranks third, with 36 corporations and 32 founders, additionally recording a web enhance of 5 corporations. New Delhi options prominently as a residence metropolis, accounting for 52 founders, whereas it hosts about 10 corporations on the checklist.

Distinguished Bengaluru-based entrepreneurs embrace Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, Harsh Jain of Dream11, who’s counted on the checklist based mostly on founder residence information, Harshil Mathur of Razorpay, and Swiggy co-founders Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy.

Mumbai is led by names similar to Radhakishan Damani of Avenue Supermarts (DMart), Falguni Nayar of Nykaa, whereas healthcare entrepreneur Abhay Soi is related to Max Healthcare, which is headquartered in Gurugram.

In Gurugram, Deepinder Goyal’s Everlasting stays a key firm, whereas New Delhi counts founders together with Rahul Bhatia of InterGlobe Enterprises, Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Peyush Bansal of Lenskart, and Shivashish Chatterjee and Yuvraja Singh of DMI Finance, based mostly on founder residence information cited in checklist protection.

Past the highest three centres, the distribution displays a broader geographic unfold. Based on reported summaries of the checklist, Chennai hosts 11 corporations and is residence to fifteen founders. Pune has eight corporations and 13 founders. Hyderabad accounts for eight corporations and 12 founders, whereas Noida hosts seven corporations. Ahmedabad options 5 corporations and 9 founders, and Jaipur and Kolkata host 4 corporations every, with seven and 10 founders respectively.

The alignment between firm headquarters and founder residences underscores a sluggish however seen decentralisation of India’s startup panorama. Instructional background continues to play a big position. On the undergraduate degree, IIT Delhi leads with 38 founders, adopted by the College of Delhi with 24 and IIT Kharagpur with 21.

Amongst postgraduate establishments, IIM Ahmedabad tops the checklist with 21 founders, adopted by IIM Calcutta with 12 and the Indian College of Enterprise with 11. Ladies entrepreneurs characteristic prominently as properly. Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar and Adwaita Nayar lead the checklist, with Nykaa valued at Rs 67,500 crore, highlighting the rising affect of women-led corporations in India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

General, whereas Bengaluru retains its place as India’s main startup hub, the regular rise of Mumbai, Gurugram, and several other different cities factors to a extra diversified and dynamic entrepreneurial panorama heading into 2025.