Ludhiana

What is on in Ludhiana.

• Sat 31 Oct 6 pm eChai Startup Demo Day

Ludhiana's startups, on one map.

Where founders in Ludhiana build.

Questions about Ludhiana.

What does the startup ecosystem in Ludhiana look like?

It is a manufacturing ecosystem with a small startup layer on top. Industry and manufacturing is by far the largest vertical here, followed by D2C and the apparel and knitwear brands built on the city's own factories, and only a handful of companies look like venture backed technology startups. The companies list above shows who is building what, filterable by vertical.

Why is Ludhiana called the Manchester of India?

Because of hosiery. The city is India's woollen knitwear capital, making sweaters, thermals, shawls and T shirts at a scale industry bodies estimate at around 10,000 units and 400,000 workers, and the Knitwear Club alone represents roughly 14,000 MSMEs. The second cluster is bicycles and cycle parts, where Ludhiana makes the bulk of India's cycles.

Who are the best known companies from Ludhiana?

Hero Cycles, founded in 1956 and the world's largest bicycle manufacturer by volume, is the anchor. Vardhman and Trident are textile majors of national scale, Monte Carlo is the country's leading branded woollen player, Deepak Fasteners owns the Unbrako fastener brand worldwide, and Happy Forgings, which makes crankshafts and heavy forged components, listed in December 2023.

Are there many funded startups in Ludhiana?

Not many, and it is worth saying plainly. The genuinely venture or angel funded names are few, among them the streetwear brand Burger Bae, which raised on Shark Tank India in 2025, the tea brand Freshleaf, which raised a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures in 2024, the ayurvedic brand Add Veda, picked for the first Innovation Mission Punjab cohort, and the SaaS company Intervue. Most of the scale in the city sits with manufacturers rather than startups.

Which incubators and coworking spaces are in Ludhiana?

The incubators are campus hosted. Punjab Agricultural University runs the strongest of them, an agri business incubator plus a NIDHI-TBI, and Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, CT University and PCTE each run their own. The coworking section below lists the private spaces, most of them around Ferozepur Road and Feroze Gandhi Market and oriented towards small firms and trading offices as much as startups.

Are there investors and VCs in Ludhiana?

Ludhiana Angels Network is the one investor body based in the city, technology agnostic but tilted towards manufacturing and supply chain, and it runs a Startup Samagam showcase. Beyond that there is no local venture fund, so early cheques usually come from Chandigarh and Mohali through Chandigarh Angels Network, Punjab Angels Network and Innovation Mission Punjab. The investors section below lists what reaches founders here.

Does eChai run events in Ludhiana?

Not at the moment. eChai Ludhiana has one event on record, in 2019, and the chapter has been quiet since. The events section shows anything upcoming, and if you would like to help start it up again, get in touch.

How do I join the startup community in Ludhiana?

Most convening here runs through the industry bodies rather than startup meetups. CICU, founded in 1968 with more than 1,700 members, FICO, UCPMA, founded in 1969 for the cycle trade, and the Knitwear Club all hold expos and conferences through the year, TiE Chandigarh has opened a satellite office in the city, and PAU runs boot camps for its incubatees. eChai is free and open wherever it runs, with no application or membership fee.