Upcoming eChai events in Panaji
eChai's free, open founder meetups across the city. RSVP and walk in.
A look back at recent eChai gatherings in Panaji, newest first.
Startups building in Panaji
Find a company or founder, or filter by what they build.
Showing
offshore gaming & casinos
India's only listed gaming+hospitality company and operator of the Goa offshore-casino industry — holds 3 of 6 offshore licences (Deltin Royale, Deltin Jaqk, Kings Casino on the Mandovi) plus land-based casi...
historic backbone (restarting 2026)
Mining was once ~20% of Goa's GDP with 25%+ of the population dependent on it; at its 2009-10 peak Goa exported up to ~50 Mt/yr of low-grade ore (mostly to China). Banned since 2012 over illegal-mining findi...
Verna / Kundaim / Colvale cluster
Goa is a major pharma-manufacturing hub — ~40+ formulation units with combined turnover ~Rs 10,000 cr, ~90% of output exported (GPMA). Anchor plants: Cipla (Verna & Kundaim), Zydus Lifesciences (Kundaim + Ve...
Goa's anchor economy
Goa's largest sector: directly ~16.43% of state GDP and 40-45% of direct+indirect employment. 2025 saw ~72.96 lakh domestic and ~3.36 lakh international arrivals (international up ~29% YoY). Now repositionin...
Goa's first (and only) unicorn — the state's flagship startup. Founded 2014; registered office and manufacturing at Verna. Maker of Truenat, a portable battery-operated point-of-care RT-PCR platform that tes...
Piyush Goel & Gurpreet Singh
Founded 2012, one of Goa's oldest funded SaaS firms. Cloud-based omnichannel e-commerce order/inventory management letting brands sell across Amazon, Flipkart etc. from one dashboard; clients have included L...
Gourav Jaiswal
Founded 2015. Digital-lending / fintech platform with proprietary credit-scoring; powered point-of-sale and consumer lending flows. Bharti Airtel acquired a strategic stake (2017) — a notable Goa fintech exi...
Kanan Tandi & Fasih
Founded 2020. AI platform that reads emotions and micro-expressions to generate analytics reports on personality, aptitude and genuine interest, with applications in hiring/HR and healthcare. Early-stage.
Raghav Chaudhry
AI startup whose founder relocated the company from Uttar Pradesh to Goa; showcased at the inaugural Goa Shackathon (Baga Beach, May 2026). Early-stage and emblematic of the 2024-26 relocation wave rather th...
Anand Tarcar & Surendra Prajapati
Founded 2018. Local food-ordering and delivery service combining restaurant partners with homemade-meal options — a homegrown foodtech play in a market dominated by national aggregators.
Vaibhav Chhabra
Community makerspace and hardware/innovation hub that relocated from expensive Mumbai to Goa during the 2020 lockdowns, now housed in a 100-year-old Portuguese mansion in Moira village. The canonical example...
Sanket Shendure
Founded 2016. B2B fintech platform enabling retailers to offer mobile recharge, bill payments and domestic money transfer through a single app. Early-stage.
Coliving/coworking startup and digital-nomad community founded 2019 by Mayur Sontakke and partner Joy, who built a home from scratch in Assagao and grew India's most visible nomad hub there. Aims to put Indi...
Rachit Rawat
Founded 2018. Event-discovery and party-listing mobile app tuned to Goa's nightlife/tourism economy — currently Goa-only. Early-stage consumer app.
Goa-based e-commerce enablement SaaS (founded by Piyush Goel & Gurpreet Singh) offering cloud-based order and inventory management for online merchants across marketplaces. A durable, growth-stage B2B softwa...
Arjun Sagar Gupta
Sustainable, handcrafted eyewear D2C brand using wood, bamboo, buffalo horn and Italian acetate; each frame made by women artisans from the local Goan community, with tree-planting and beach clean-ups built ...
Chinmay Kamat & Rohan Naik
Founded 2017. Software services studio — custom software, mobile apps, web development and digital marketing. Representative of Goa's IT-services / studio layer that supports the wider ecosystem.
Forum for Innovation, Incubation, Research & Entrepreneurship
Goa's leading government-supported incubator. Reports supporting ~63 startups that raised ~Rs 111 cr via seed funds and equity grants, with a portfolio skewed to TourismTech and sustainable tech. Alongside t...
App-based ride-hailing/taxi service (founder Sachin Bhavsar) operating in partnership with the Goa government and tourism board — effectively the state-backed alternative to the local taxi cartel and to nati...
Sachin Bhavsar
Launched 2018. App-based taxi aggregator run by local firm Frotamiles, backed by the Goa Tourism Development Corporation to formalise Goa's taxi market. State's flagship mobility/traveltech platform; frequen...
Goa-based mobile-first employee training and enablement SaaS (founder Gourav Jaiswal) that delivers training to frontline/retail teams via smartphones. Raised ~$2M; a representative Goa B2B SaaS play in the ...
Tamal Raha
Founded 2017. Biopharma and pharmaceutical consulting for drug development and regulatory affairs, serving clients across the US, Europe, China and Latin America — a services firm that plugs directly into Go...
India's first fully-indoor vertical hydroponics farm, founded 2016 in Mapusa by Ajay Naik (an IT engineer who sold his mobile-apps company to a German firm) with Harish Usgaonker. Grows pesticide-free exotic...
Tyrone D'Souza
Founded 2008 — one of Goa's earliest tech startups. Mobile app-promotion and performance-marketing (CPI/CPA) ad network operating globally out of Goa.
Goa-founded fintech (founder Gourav Jaiswal) behind the Loan Singh consumer-lending / digital-credit platform using alternative credit scoring. Bharti Airtel acquired a stake (2017). Note: as it scaled, much...
Goa-HQ'd IoT/smart-building startup founded 2020 by Rohin Parkar & Malcolm D'Souza. Wireless, cloud-managed, smartphone-based access control, attendance and visitor management using BLE-mesh (no back-end wir...
Goa-based IoT + SaaS platform for the commercial-transportation industry (founder Pranav Shirke), digitising fleet/vehicle operations. Raised ~$1.3M total. Part of Goa's small-but-real hardware+SaaS cluster.
Goa-HQ'd traveltech SaaS (founder Saurabh Nanda, IIT alumnus) that helps tour operators and activity agencies sell and manage tours/itineraries online — booking engine + back-office for the experiences econo...
No companies match. Clear the search to see all.
Who funds founders in Panaji
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 Panaji
Incubators, accelerators, corporate programs and institutions. Jump to a type, or browse the list.
Incubators 6
South-Goa incubator supporting early-stage startups with mentoring, funding links and workspace; serves as chapter base/director for Startup Grind Goa. A key institutional host for founder events outside Panaji.
One of Goa's flagship incubators, supported by the Department of Science & Technology (DST, Govt of India) and hosted on a 25,000 sq ft Don Bosco campus in Fatorda. FiiRE offers structured incubation, co-working, prototyping/design labs ...
A not-for-profit (Section 25) Technology Business Incubator established in 2012, run out of the Agnel Technical Education Complex in Verna with a second centre in Assagao (North Goa). CIBA provides incubation, mentoring, networking and s...
An Atal Innovation Mission (NITI Aayog) incubator hosted at the Goa Institute of Management campus in Sanquelim, inaugurated in February 2021. Sector- and stage-agnostic and open to startups nationwide, it offers co-working, mentoring, i...
The BITS Goa Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship Society (BGIIES), registered in February 2020, is the incubation vehicle at BITS Pilani's K.K. Birla Goa Campus in Zuarinagar. It currently operates the BITS BIRAC BioNEST incubator,...
NIT Goa hosts an MHRD/DST-funded startup centre (inaugurated 2016) that provides modest institutional funding to student and research-led ventures, typically a minimum of Rs 2.5 lakh/year scalable on performance. It also runs national in...
Accelerators 1
A state-run, mentor-driven accelerator launched by the Minister for IT, Electronics & Communications under the Startup & IT Promotion Cell. It supports a curated cohort of ~30 startups (25 Goa-registered plus 5 operating in Goa without l...
Government & public 3
The nodal state agency for startups, operating under the Department of Information Technology, Electronics & Communications (DITE&C). It administers startup certification, incentive disbursement and ecosystem tie-ups under the Goa Startu...
The parent department shaping Goa's IT ecosystem, ease-of-doing-business processes, and electronics/IT unit incentives. DITE&C authored the Goa Startup Policy 2025 and runs the Empowered Committee that reviews and approves startup incent...
A government-backed innovation hub and ~78-seat coworking space run by Goa's Economic Development Corporation (EDC). It blends managed workspace with early-stage startup incubation, offering access to mentors, advisors and funding pathwa...
Coworking spaces in Panaji
Where founders and early teams set up.
The Goa hub of the national 91springboard coworking chain, located in Santa Inez, Panaji (near Taj Vivanta, a short walk from the beach). It offers flexi/fixed desks, private offices and team rooms with community programming, partner per...
A digital-nomad-focused coworking-plus-coliving community founded in 2019, with properties across Assagao and Anjuna in North Goa (and now Dharamkot, HP). It pairs one of Goa's fastest coworking WiFi setups (>300 Mbps) with dorms-to-apar...
A boutique coworking café started in 2019, set in an ~80-year-old Portuguese heritage villa steps from Anjuna beach. It combines a working environment with a wellness ethos, dine-in café, dual-ISP internet and 4–6 hours of power backup, ...
A no-frills, infrastructure-first coworking space in Margao serving South Goa's freelancers, remote workers and small startups. It offers hot desks, private cabins and meeting rooms on flexible plans, filling a gap in a region with fewer...
An independent, greenery-set coworking space in Porvorim, offering balconies with scenic views, high-speed internet, lounge and terrace areas, and a pet-friendly policy. It targets remote workers and small teams wanting a quieter alterna...
Startup communities & events in Panaji
The wider scene eChai is part of: communities, recurring meetups and annual conferences. Jump to a type, or browse the list.
Women founders in Panaji
Women building companies here, and the founder networks and funds backing them.
Tea Trunk
India's first certified tea sommelier and founder-CEO of Tea Trunk, a digital-first premium gourmet tea brand launched in 2013. Bootstrapped to profitability from Goa — a state where startups don't conventio...
WebN / GoWomaniya (women's networks)
Founder of WebN, a networking platform for women entrepreneurs in Goa — ~110 members across four chapters (~70% relocated 'settlers'), with combined member turnover of ~₹15 crore. Also founded GoWomaniya (20...
Asier Solutions
Goa-born-and-raised former engineering-college teacher who founded Asier Solutions, building robotic kits and STEM-learning products. Grew from 3 to 11 product kits in three years while managing an all-male ...
Blurb
Mumbai-origin founder of Blurb, a digital-marketing agency serving Goan restaurants and hotels, run from Parra in the North Goa belt. Registered as a state startup and drew salary-reimbursement incentives — ...
Institutional women-founder networks active in Goa. WICCI (Women's Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry) runs a Goa presence (within its Western Region) promoting women's entrepreneurship via government/ins...
Startup neighbourhoods in Panaji
The neighbourhoods where the city's founders cluster.
Goa's capital and its administrative and commercial core. Patto Plaza, the EDC business district beside the Ourem creek, holds corporate offices, banks and IT firms, and the state's startup machinery sits a short distance away at the IT Hub in Altinho, where the Startup and IT Promotion Cell works. It is the default business address for Goa registered ventures, and 91springboard on 18th June Road in Santa Inez is the best known coworking space in the city.
5 companies 6 coworking
Strong in Hospitality, mobility
The business and residential belt just across the Mandovi from Panaji, and the fastest growing part of the capital region. Coworking spaces, digital marketing agencies and consultancies cluster here, and subsidised desks are offered under state schemes alongside Panaji and Margao.
1 company 1 coworking
Strong in E-commerce, SaaS
The villages in Bardez where relocated founders, remote teams, creators and digital nomads concentrate. NomadGao runs coliving and coworking out of Assagao and Anjuna, and Clay Coworking Café sits in an eighty year old Portuguese villa near Anjuna beach. Worth knowing that this is a talent and lifestyle magnet more than a registration base, since many people living here run companies incorporated elsewhere.
2 companies 4 coworking
Strong in Community, hospitality-tech
North Goa's main market town in Bardez, the trading centre for the villages of the coastal belt. Letcetra Agritech, India's first fully indoor vertical hydroponics farm, was built here in 2016 and grows about three tonnes of greens a month from roughly 150 square metres.
2 companies
Strong in Incubator, agritech
Goa's largest industrial estate, in the south of the state, with more than 150 companies and over 20,000 workers across pharma, electronics, engineering, food processing and auto components. Molbio Diagnostics, the state's only unicorn, is registered and manufactures here, CIBA runs its incubator out of the Agnel technical complex on the estate, and the long planned IT and electronics push is meant to land on the same land.
1 company
Strong in medtech, diagnostics
A GoaIDC estate in the north east known for engineering, precision tooling and small and medium manufacturing, and part of the pharma cluster alongside Verna and Colvale. It is where hardware and engineering companies find a base to build at small volume.
1 company
Strong in Manufacturing, Pharma
Answers about the Panaji startup scene
What does the startup ecosystem in Panaji look like?
Small, and shaped almost entirely by what Goa sells. Travel and hospitality, SaaS and mobility lead, with a pharma and medtech base at Verna underneath them. Goa also has an unusually high share of women led companies, with state data cited in the press putting it at around a third of registered startups. The companies list above shows who is building what, filterable by vertical.
What is Goa's economy built on beyond tourism?
Pharma manufacturing and, historically, mining. The Verna, Kundaim and Colvale estates hold around 40 formulation units with a combined turnover near Rs 10,000 crore and roughly 90 percent of output exported, though the marquee names running those plants are headquartered outside the state. Offshore casinos on the Mandovi are a genuinely Goa specific industry. Iron ore mining was once close to a fifth of state GDP and has been under a ban since 2012.
Who are the best known startups from Goa?
Molbio Diagnostics at Verna is the state's flagship and India's first medtech unicorn, valued at about $1.6 billion in 2022 on the back of Truenat, its portable point of care PCR platform. Spintly, which builds wireless access control for buildings, raised an $8 million Series A led by Accel. Browntape in Porvorim, Vacation Labs, HandyTrain and TempoGo are the older SaaS names, GoaMiles is the state backed taxi app, and Letcetra Agritech in Mapusa is the agritech story people cite.
Which incubators and coworking spaces are in and around Panaji?
FiiRE at Don Bosco College of Engineering in Fatorda has supported more than 140 startups and leans towards tourism technology. CIBA has run incubation from the Agnel complex at Verna since 2012, with a second centre in Assagao. AIC-GIM at the Goa Institute of Management in Sanquelim is the state's Atal Incubation Centre, and BGIIES runs the BioNEST facility at BITS Goa. In the capital itself, IGNITE is the EDC innovation hub with around 78 seats, and 91springboard is at Santa Inez.
Is Goa a workable base for a remote or relocated founder?
It is the thing Goa is genuinely known for now. The coworking and coliving layer across Assagao, Anjuna, Panaji, Porvorim and Margao is denser than in most Indian states, with NomadGao, Clay Coworking Café, 91springboard, Sky Villa in Porvorim and The Coworking Space Goa in Margao among the fixtures, and subsidised desks available under state schemes. Be clear eyed about one thing, though. A lot of founders living in the coastal belt keep their companies registered in Bengaluru, Delhi or Mumbai, so living here and building here are still two different decisions.
Are there investors and VCs in Panaji?
The local capital layer is thin. The Goa Angel Network is the main home grown vehicle, backed by established Goan business families and weighted towards women led and MSME ventures. Most institutional money still comes from outside the state, and the state itself is the other early source, with the Goa Startup Policy 2025 carrying 12 schemes including a seed capital grant of up to Rs 10 lakh at MVP stage. The investors section below lists what is active locally.
Where do founders network in Panaji?
Startup Goa has run roughly monthly meetups for years and is the longest standing grassroots group. TiE launched its Panjim chapter in February 2026, Startup Grind Goa runs monthly sessions directed from FiiRE, and the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry convenes the older business side from Panaji. WebN and GoWomaniya are the women founder networks, and the workation belt has its own circuit through Digital Nomads Goa and the founder retreats that now book South Goa resorts. The communities section below lists them.
Does eChai run events in Panaji?
Not at the moment. eChai Goa ran events in Panaji between 2017 and 2019, hosted at 91springboard on 18th June Road with 91springboard, FUNL, the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Startup Goa, 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.
Want to help restart eChai Panaji?
eChai's Goa chapter ran between 2017 and 2019, out of 91springboard in Panaji, and has been quiet since. If you are a founder or community builder who wants to convene free, open meetups here again, get in touch. No membership, no fee.
Get in touch
