Bangalore is India’s top home for IoT startups

A study by management consulting firm Zinnov has revealed that Bangalore is the prime destination in India for an IoT startup to set up base, as it accounts for 52% of the total IoT startups in India.

Bangalore is followed by Delhi NCR with 12%, Mumbai 11%, Hyderabad 4%, Chennai 2%, and others together accounting for 19%.

“A wide availability of talent, thriving ecosystem of investors, access to industry experts and the presence of startup accelerators are contributing to Bangalore’s dominance,” a release from the firm said. The study on the IoT startup ecosystem in India also reveals that over 120 IoT startups were set up in India in the last decade with more than 80% of them being established after 2010.

Cumulatively, these startups have received more than $169 million in funding since 2006. While indicating that an increasing number of connected devices is expected to propel India’s IoT market, the study titled, IoT Startups in India 2017, also states that the funding activity across use cases for such startups in India indicate a huge growth potential for them in the country.

“While the initial wave of growth for IoT startups in India was focused on consumer applications, the next wave will be geared towards Industrial IoT,” Zinnov Engagement Manager & Delivery Head (G.A.P) Anand Subramaniam said.

“In addition, we will also witness a host of partnerships being crafted between GICs in India and the IoT startups in the near term,” Subramaniam added.

The study said that 67% of the IoT startups in India are in the infrastructure layer, which includes hardware components such as infrastructure sensors, embedded chips, MEMS, actuators, modules, SIM card and system design.

The applications layer accounts for 52% of the IoT startups in India, the study revealed, stating that the IoT landscape in India is segmented across three categories based on use cases — Industrial IoT, Enterprise IoT, and Consumer IoT. Zinnov’s study also indicated 47% of the IoT startups in India fall under Consumer IoT with popular use cases being wearables, connected vehicles and connected appliances.

Enterprise IoT is a close second place, with 40% share. In terms of funding, MedTech, security & surveillance and retail sensing have the highest share in the Enterprise IoT segment.

Industrial IoT accounts for approximately 27% of IoT startups and has received close to $65 million in funding from investors.