Upcoming eChai events in Mangaluru
eChai's free, open founder meetups across the city. RSVP and walk in.
A look back at recent eChai gatherings in Mangaluru, newest first.
Startups building in Mangaluru
Find a company or founder, or filter by what they build.
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South Canara banking cluster
Between ~1880 and 1935, 22 banks were founded in coastal Karnataka, nine of them in Mangaluru city. The region gave India five nationally significant banks — Canara, Vijaya, Karnataka Bank (all Mangaluru) pl...
Ammembal Subba Rao Pai
Founded 1906 in Mangaluru as the 'Canara Hindu Permanent Fund'. Nationalised in 1969, it grew into one of India's largest public-sector banks (now HQ'd in Bengaluru). Its Mangaluru origin is the flagship exh...
Infosys operates a large campus on ~354 acres allotted at Mudipu — the flagship anchor of Mangaluru's IT-services presence. Other majors including Cognizant, Thomson Reuters and Mphasis (BPO) also run office...
founded by B.R. Vysaray Achar & co-founders
Founded 18 Feb 1924 in Mangaluru and STILL headquartered here — the last major 'Canara' bank to remain independent and locally HQ'd after the others were nationalised or merged. A listed private-sector bank ...
Karnataka's largest chemical-fertilizer manufacturer (urea, DAP, specialty and liquid fertilizers, plus industrial chemicals like sulphuric acid). Listed company (Adventz/Zuari group). A long-standing pillar...
ONGC subsidiary
A 15 MMTPA oil refinery and petrochemicals complex, ONGC subsidiary and a listed Miniratna CPSE under the Ministry of Petroleum. Produces the full range of fuels plus polypropylene, xylene and petcoke. One o...
One of India's major ports and the only major port in Karnataka; handles a large share of the country's coffee, cashew and timber exports plus crude, LPG and containers. Mangaluru is one of only a handful of...
Established 1960 (as KREC), one of India's top-ranked NITs and the region's premier engineering + tech-talent anchor, sited on the Arabian Sea coast ~22 km north of the city. Recruiters include Google, Micro...
A.B. Shetty & farmer-community founders
Founded 23 Oct 1931 in Mangaluru to serve local farmers. Nationalised in 1980; merged into Bank of Baroda in 2019. Part of the cluster of nationally significant banks born in Mangaluru — heritage record, no ...
Cybersecurity startup (est. 2022) by Mohammed Sheik Nihal providing 24/7 monitoring, penetration testing and managed security services. Emerging Mangaluru infosec venture.
Krithika Shetty & Ayeesha Rasha
Founded 2020, a women-led femtech / women's-wellness venture. Early-stage; noted as part of a visible women-founder cohort in Mangaluru.
Vignesh Prabhu
Early-stage SaaS / compliance-tech startup, incubation-supported (Deshpande Startups). Small and early; represents the RegTech/compliance-SaaS thread.
Remote-healthcare startup (est. 2023) by Kapil Rawat running an integrated remote homecare / elderly-monitoring platform. Fits the Deralakatte medical-cluster strength; early-stage healthtech.
Healthtech/diagnostics SaaS (est. 2008) by Vishnu Shashank and Vijendra Rao — lab/diagnostics management software with AI-assisted patient classification. Long-running Mangaluru health-IT company.
Mangalorean firms have long dominated cashew processing, beedi rolling and coffee/plantation-produce trade — traditional labour-intensive industries tied to the port's export role (New Mangalore Port handles...
Dikshith Rai & Praveen Castelino
Founded 2011, a design-led IT services / product-engineering consultancy building mobile (iOS/Android) and web apps with a strong UI/UX practice for enterprise clients. ~183 employees and ~Rs 46 cr revenue (...
Walter Nandalike
Founded 2001, a Mangaluru-born online news portal and regional media network (web + TV) that became the dominant coastal-Karnataka digital news brand and a diaspora hub for Mangalorean/Konkani communities wo...
Mangaluru's homegrown D2C/FMCG ice-cream brand (est. 1997, Pai family) that scaled beyond the coast and raised ~$25M from Faering Capital and others — a rare consumer-brand growth story rooted in the city. N...
Launched 1865 by Basel Mission missionary Georg Plebst, the terracotta 'Mangalore tile' became a globally exported roofing product — used even on Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (a World Heritage site)...
Edtech / skilling platform founded 2017 by Gaurav Kamath offering alternative credentials and job-focused tech skills training (large regional-language coding community). A growth-stage, Mangaluru-rooted edt...
Healthtech wearables startup (est. 2024) building an AI voice-companion smart ring for women's safety and senior care with fall detection, SOS, vitals and NFC. Woman-founded (Anupama Bhat); named to a CES 'S...
Bootstrapped Google Cloud engineering firm founded 2013 by Suyog Shetty, Rashmi George, Roshan Bava and Mohsin Khan, grown to ~1,000 GCP professionals and ACQUIRED by NTT DATA (announced Sep 2024, closed Nov...
Praveen Kumar Kalbhavi & Mohammed Hanif
Founded Oct 2013 by Praveen Kalbhavi (ex-head of the Infosys Mangalore Development Center), an IT consulting and digital-engineering firm doing custom software / supply-chain and logistics tech. Kalbhavi is ...
IoT / connected-device startup (est. 2018) by Ravikumar G., Nick Coelho and Prajwal Dsouza building a platform for smart connected ecosystems. Hardware/IoT play leveraging the local engineering base.
All-in-one SaaS commerce/retail-digitisation platform founded 2019 by Vikas Kailaje and Sumanth Shetty. Reported ~$1.2M raised. One of the clearest genuinely Mangaluru-HQ'd, funded SaaS startups on the coast.
Rajesh Prabhu
Founded 2012, a workforce-optimization / enterprise-software services firm (~20-person team). Small bootstrapped SaaS/services shop typical of the local product-engineering cluster.
EV mobility startup founded 2022 by Ashith Prajwal building a purpose-built electric microvan ('Fronax'). Backed by Startup Karnataka (~$35.5K reported). Early-stage but a rare hardware/EV play from the coast.
Vineeth Nayak & Jayesh Pajwani
Founded 2009, a digital customer-experience / omnichannel contact-centre software company (chat, voice, workflow) serving banks and enterprises across Asia. Product-led with an international customer base; a...
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Who funds founders in Mangaluru
The funding ladder here, from a first angel cheque up to later-stage funds. Jump to a rung, or browse the list.
Incubators & accelerators in Mangaluru
Incubators, accelerators, corporate programs and institutions. Jump to a type, or browse the list.
Incubators 11
AIM/NITI Aayog-backed Atal Incubation Centre jointly promoted by Nitte Education Trust. Provides startups with expertise, tech support, investor access, market entry and networking. A co-organizer of Coastal Startup Fest.
Healthcare-innovation-focused incubator (Section 8) at Yenepoya deemed university. Facilities include a 3D bioprinting lab, ISO 13485 medical-device manufacturing, and a NABH-accredited clinical-trial facility. Supports medtech startups ...
One of five state-backed K-tech Innovation Hubs / Common Instrumentation Facilities (Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Belagavi, Mysuru, Shivamogga), established by KITS in partnership with IKP Knowledge Park (Hyderabad). The Mangaluru hub is a prod...
The region's oldest and most established technology incubator, hosted at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) in Surathkal, north of Mangaluru city. Founded in 1994 (formerly KREC-STEP), it provides business incubation, ...
One of the more active academic incubators in Mangaluru city, spread over ~20,000 sq ft (with more space earmarked) and hosting a K-tech NAIN incubation centre since 2017. It supports startups in IT, electronics/IoT, embedded systems, me...
Incubator of Yenepoya Deemed-to-be University (started May 2019), with a distinct focus on healthcare and health-tech innovation given the university's medical strengths. Identifies, mentors and hosts innovators through the healthcare-in...
Atal Incubation Centre jointly promoted by Nitte Education Trust and NITI Aayog under the Atal Innovation Mission, GoI; ~10,000 sq ft, focused on agriculture, biotechnology and ICT. Offers mentorship, tech support, investor access and ma...
New Age Innovation Network centre at NMAM Institute of Technology, a KITS unit under the state IT/BT dept promoting student innovation and incubation since 2017 (with ELEVATE-winning teams such as AthrV-Ed and Airmydus/Infinity Drones). ...
DST/NSTEDB-funded technology business incubator of Manipal Academy of Higher Education, established March 2010, operating from a ~10,000 sq ft facility. Focus areas span IT, healthcare, medical devices, agriculture and renewable energy; ...
Entrepreneurship Development Cell of Canara Engineering College, part of the broader NAIN network, encouraging student-led innovative businesses through mentoring and events. A smaller campus-level enabler roughly 22 km outside Mangaluru...
PACE hosts a NAIN centre and runs Startup Karnataka bootcamps, acting as another campus-level entrepreneurship enabler within the Mangaluru region. Depth is at the student-project/early-idea stage rather than scaling companies.
Government & public 4
Karnataka Digital Economy Mission's flagship programme to grow the digital economy in tier-2 cities beyond Bengaluru, with Mangaluru as one of six priority clusters (alongside Mysuru, Hubballi, Kalaburagi, Shivamogga, Tumakuru). It coord...
The Mangaluru cluster arm of the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (a public-private not-for-profit under the state IT/BT dept). It targets IT/ITES and fintech growth — publicly stated goals of ~USD 1 Bn revenue and ~1,00,000 jobs. Manga...
State government's startup-enablement machinery run by the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) under the Dept. of Electronics, IT, BT & S&T. It delivers the Karnataka Startup Policy, ELEVATE grants, NAIN and K-tech in Mang...
KITS's grassroots student-innovation programme that funds and mentors early student-led startups through host institutions; each centre receives roughly Rs 12 lakh/year plus a Project Monitoring Unit for mentorship. In and around Mangalu...
Coworking spaces in Mangaluru
Where founders and early teams set up.
A managed/premium coworking operator in Mangaluru (Yeyyadi, near Citadel Mindspace, plus a second 'wrkwrk Triangle' managed-office location). Offers flexible desks and fully managed offices aimed at freelancers, startup teams and small c...
Home-grown Mangaluru coworking brand with multiple locations (Kodialbail/M G Road, Ballalbagh and others), offering dedicated desks and shared/private office space for freelancers and early teams. Central Kodialbail location makes it one...
Startup communities & events in Mangaluru
The wider scene eChai is part of: communities, recurring meetups and annual conferences. Jump to a type, or browse the list.
Women founders in Mangaluru
Women building companies here, and the founder networks and funds backing them.
Miraii.ai
Founder & CEO of Miraii.ai (est. 2024, Mangaluru), building an AI voice-companion smart ring ('Elai') with fall detection, SOS, vitals tracking and NFC — originally aimed at women's safety and now extended t...
Lowen Women
Co-founders (est. 2020) of Lowen Women, a femtech D2C venture tackling period pain with a wearable massager/relief belt. A women-led product startup addressing women's health — notable in a city with few con...
coastal Karnataka
India's oldest women-in-business network (est. 1983, ~20+ chapters, 15,000+ members) running mentorship, entrepreneurship and leadership programmes. The organised national women-entrepreneur platform coastal...
women-entrepreneur chambers
WICCI (Women's Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry) runs Karnataka councils in the southern region covering coastal Karnataka, feeding women into policy and business networks. AWAKE (Association of Women E...
Startup neighbourhoods in Mangaluru
The neighbourhoods where the city's founders cluster.
The commercial core of the city, carrying the banks, corporate offices, professional services and most of Mangaluru's coworking, including Cowozo on M G Road at Kodialbail. Karnataka Bank runs its head office at Kankanady on the southern edge of this belt and is the one coastal bank still headquartered in the city, while Mother Teresa Road in Bejai holds a share of the local software firms.
2 companies 1 coworking
Strong in Fintech, Banking
The National Institute of Technology Karnataka, about 20 km north of the city on NH-66, established in 1960 as KREC and the region's main engineering campus. NITK-STEP, its science and technology entrepreneurs' park, has run incubation here since 1994 alongside a student E-Cell, which makes Surathkal the deeptech end of the coast.
1 company 2 coworking
Strong in Tech Talent, Education
Karnataka's only major port, an all weather deep water gateway at Panambur working 16 berths across crude oil, LPG, petroleum products, iron ore pellets, coal, edible oil, fertiliser and containers. Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers, the state's largest fertiliser manufacturer, sits on the same stretch, and Panambur is also the city's landmark beach.
2 companies
Strong in Chemicals, Agri-industry
The refining and petrochemicals belt north east of the city. MRPL, a 15 MMTPA refinery and an ONGC subsidiary, runs here alongside the Mangalore SEZ petrochemical cluster and an aromatics complex, with Katipalla the township that grew up around it.
1 company
Strong in Petrochemicals, Energy
The IT campus belt south of the city. Infosys runs its Mangaluru development centre on around 354 acres allotted at Mudipu, the anchor of the city's IT services presence, with SEZ and EPIP infrastructure at Pajeeru and Ganjimutt alongside it. Cognizant, Thomson Reuters and Mphasis also run offices in the city.
1 company
Strong in IT Services
Answers about the Mangaluru startup scene
What does the startup ecosystem in Mangaluru look like?
Mangaluru's ecosystem is strongest in SaaS, fintech and IT services, sitting on an industrial base of the port, the MRPL refinery and the fertiliser and processing units around them. Homegrown product startups are still few and mostly early stage. The companies list above shows who is building what, filterable by vertical.
Why is Mangaluru called the cradle of Indian banking?
Because a large part of modern Indian banking started on this coast. Around 22 banks were founded in coastal Karnataka between 1880 and 1935, nine of them in Mangaluru itself, including Canara Bank in 1906, Karnataka Bank in 1924 and Vijaya Bank in 1931. Karnataka Bank is the one still headquartered in the city, at Kankanady, and that history is why Karnataka's tier two push treats Mangaluru as a fintech cluster.
Which are the best known companies from Mangaluru?
Karnataka Bank is the largest company headquartered in the city. Hangyo Ice Creams is the standout consumer brand, having raised about $25 million from Faering Capital in 2024. CodeCraft, Novigo and Tetherfi are the long running local software firms, Daijiworld is the regional media network built here, and MRPL and New Mangalore Port anchor the industrial economy.
Which are the top startup verticals in Mangaluru?
SaaS, fintech and IT services lead, with healthtech close behind on the back of the medical and dental colleges at Deralakatte. Use the vertical chips above to browse the companies in each.
Which incubators and coworking spaces are in Mangaluru?
NITK-STEP at Surathkal is the oldest, running since 1994, and the state backed K-tech Innovation Hub in the city offers a makerspace and desks for product startups. Sahyadri College at Adyar and Yenepoya at Deralakatte run the most active college incubators. Coworking is thin: wrkwrk at Yeyyadi and Cowozo on M G Road are the main operators, and the coworking section below lists them.
Are there investors and VCs in Mangaluru?
No angel network or venture fund is based in the city. Early money reaches founders here through Karnataka state programmes such as ELEVATE and NAIN, through TiE Global Angels via the local TiE chapter, and from investors in Bengaluru, which is about 350 km away. The investors section below lists what is active locally.
Where do founders network in Mangaluru?
Mostly around TiE Mangaluru, which started in April 2023 and reports reaching 400 or more entrepreneurs and 130 or more member founders, and at the set piece events, Mangaluru Technovanza, Coastal Startup Fest and TiECon Mangaluru. The campus incubators at NITK and Sahyadri convene the student and early stage end. The communities section below lists them.
Does eChai run events in Mangaluru?
Not yet. eChai has no Mangaluru chapter, and the nearest ones are Bengaluru and Kochi. eChai is free and open wherever it runs, with no application or membership fee, and if you would like to help start it here, get in touch.
Want to help launch eChai Mangaluru?
eChai does not run a chapter in Mangaluru yet. If you are a founder or community builder who wants to seed the first free, open eChai meetup here, get in touch. In the meantime, TiE Mangaluru is the most active founder network on the coast, running since April 2023 and the natural partner for a launch.
Get in touch
