Nasscom, the IT industry body, is also helping these small companies grow. A Nasscom spokesperson was quoted saying “Chennai has been identified as an important startup hub with almost 8 percent of the total startup applications coming in from this region. The Nasscom ‘10,000 Startups’ programme will aim at scaling up the existing startup hub to the next level of growth.

There are other players who have helped build the ecosystem. And The Startup Centre is one of them. Vijay Anand, founder and CEO of The Startup Centre, says cities like Chennai which have easy policies and matured market are well balanced for startups to enter.

According to Anand who has has worked with over 1,000 startups through his initiative, SaaS, Cloud and BigData are potential billion-dollar opportunities that are being serviced by Chennai’s startups.

Shailesh Davey, co-founder and vice-president, Zoho Corp, pointed out that most of the founders were from Chennai. And added that, “When they started in 1996, there were hardly any product startups in Chennai. Now, there are a number of them. Ecosystems can happen only when the first few are bold enough to set up shop in a city. Others tend to follow when they see success of those other startups. Chennai has a lot going for it, by being a metro and the availability of a well-qualified and young workforce.” 

READ MORE:

Zivame Raises Funds From Unilazer Ventures

Indian Techies Sell Their Firm To Apple