Meanwhile, across eChai
Jitendar Sharma (Founder CEO)
India's first dedicated medical-devices manufacturing park (incorporated 2016, ~270 acres) with shared/common manufacturing & scientific facilities. 150+ companies have set up production units; played a nati...
Indian Navy
Headquarters of the Indian Navy's Eastern Naval Command (est. 1971) and home to the Navy's submarine arm, submarine base and training school. Makes Vizag India's premier east-coast naval hub — a major driver...
Govt of Andhra Pradesh initiative
State initiative launched Dec 2016 (under then-CM N. Chandrababu Naidu, 'Sunrise AP Vision 2029') to make Vizag a fintech/financial-technology hub — targeting digital banking, financial analytics, cybersecur...
Govt of India (Ministry of Defence)
Defence-PSU shipyard (nationalised 1961; moved to Ministry of Defence 2010), India's 2nd largest after Cochin. Builds vessels up to ~80,000 DWT, overhauls Indian Navy submarines and is being equipped for nuc...
Hindustan Petroleum (Govt of India)
One of HPCL's two refineries in India (the other in Mumbai) and the first oil refinery on India's east coast (commissioned 1957). Operating at ~11 MMTPA after expansions, with plans to scale up further. A co...
APIIC + Ramky Group
India's flagship pharma SEZ/industrial park (set up 2005, ~2,400 acres, PPP by Govt of AP/APIIC with Ramky). Houses 100+ operating pharma units and ~30,000 employees, including plants of Hetero, Aurobindo Ph...
IT/ITES MNC cluster
Vizag's main IT hub — a coastal IT/ITES SEZ (incl. 'Hill No. 3' SEZ and Millennium Towers) hosting 200+ IT & ITeS firms. MNC delivery/BPM centres here include Tech Mahindra, Wipro, WNS, Concentrix, Conduent,...
Govt of India (Ministry of Ports)
One of India's largest and busiest cargo-handling ports and the only natural harbour on India's east coast. Handles petroleum, steel, minerals, coal and containers; accommodates ~150,000 DWT vessels with dra...
Govt of India (Ministry of Steel)
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd — India's first shore-based integrated steel plant, commissioned 1992, now ~7.3 MTPA capacity. A central PSU and one of Vizag's largest employers; a major driver of the local indust...
Govt / Andhra University
State-backed IoT & AI Centre of Excellence on the Andhra University campus (working lab + ~65-seat startup space). Reported to have helped 8 AI/IoT startups collectively secure ~Rs 131 crore in funding — one...
Tarun Jami
Cleantech/green-construction startup (founded ~2017) making 'Agrocrete', a carbon-negative building block from crop residue and agri-biomass; claims to cut construction cost ~50% and improve thermal insulati...
Babu Munagala, Pruthvi Rao, Sudheer Kuppam
Blockchain/data-security startup (data & analytics as a service). Built 'Zebi Chain' (tamper-proof data security) deployed for AP land records (APCRDA), and 'Zebi AI Chain' deployed across 200+ hotels. Was a...
AU's Section-8 incubator (name riffs on T-Hub; 'ā' = Andhra in Telugu). ~1.1 lakh sq ft, 121 startups incubated (as of Aug 2023), Rs 62.7 cr startup funding facilitated, 74+ events including hackathons. Co-runs 'Idea Surge 2025' ideathon...
The incubation and startup hub of IIM Visakhapatnam — supports early-stage founders with mentoring, programs and institutional backing. A named ecosystem partner in the Vizag startup circuit (IIM Vizag appears among BIGShift Vizag partne...
STPI Visakhapatnam (MeitY, Govt of India) provides statutory services, data-comms, plug-and-play incubation and support for software/IT exporters and SMEs. Its Kalpataru Centre of Entrepreneurship, set up at the RINL-Visakhapatnam Steel ...
State-backed incubation centre and Sunrise Startup Factory co-working space at the Rushikonda IT SEZ, operated under APIS as part of the four-centre Sunrise network. It has hosted investor pitch days (e.g. startups pitching to investors)...
BIRAC BioNEST bio/medtech incubator (DSIR-recognised) inside AMTZ, in a 22,500 sq ft facility combining biotechnology and medical technology. It supports startups above TRL-5 with pre-clinical testing, regulatory and compliance support, ...
The flagship university incubator in Vizag, with ~1.1 lakh sq ft of infrastructure and 120+ startups incubated, housing 90+ active startups/businesses and ~500-580 jobs. It has facilitated ~Rs 62.7 crore of startup funding plus ~Rs 15 cr...
GITAM University's incubation and entrepreneurship centre, supporting student and early-stage founders with mentoring, workspace and angel-investor connects, positioning startups as peer mentors to each other. GITAM is establishing an In...
IIMV Foundation for Incubation, Entrepreneurial Learning and Development — the incubation and startup hub of IIM Visakhapatnam, operating since 2018 and among India's faster-growing incubators. A sector-agnostic incubator leaning into re...
Flagship Government of Andhra Pradesh initiative launched in Dec 2016 to position Visakhapatnam as a fintech capital, spanning digital banking, financial analytics, cybersecurity and blockchain. Ran a KPMG-partnered Fintech Accelerator a...
APIS is the state nodal agency implementing Andhra Pradesh's Innovation & Startup Policy across the state, including registrations, grants and incubation support. It operates the Sunrise Startup incubation/co-working network with centres...
A wellness-forward, design-led coworking space in Daba Gardens (also with a Ram Nagar location), seating ~86 members with private cabins, quiet zones, meeting rooms, an in-house cafe and specialty coffee. It runs community programming — ...
A fast-growing local coworking operator with roughly eight outlets across Visakhapatnam, offering budget-friendly fixed and flexible desks for freelancers, small teams and early-stage startups. Its multi-branch footprint (Dwaraka Nagar a...
eChai's demo day gives promising founders from the Vizag community a stage to present their ventures, get early feedback, and connect with enablers and fellow founders. Hosted at GITAM's Venture Development Centre in Rushikonda. It's the...
Active TiE chapter covering Andhra Pradesh (Vizag, Vijayawada/Amaravati, Tirupati). Runs the standard TiE pillars — TiE U, TiE Young Entrepreneurs, TiE Women, TiE Angels, and the 6–9 month TiE Nurture mentoring program — plus the flagshi...
State innovation agency creating home-grown entrepreneurs through 4 Technology Business Incubators + 1 accelerator across AP. Offers mentorship, co-working, accounting, IP/patent support; partnered with NASSCOM, Govin Capital, FICCI, IC2...
Largest generic startup Meetup in Vizag — 2,226 members, 157 past events, 4.6★, organized by Alok Soni (also vizagstartups.in / Facebook group). Big roster but effectively idle: most recent listed events are from 2020–2022 with tiny turn...
Catalyst community for MVP-stage startups — 613 members — offering launchpad, team building, 'PitchUp' and mentorship. Focused on getting early founders from idea to launch.
Founder community running online meetings, seminars, workshops, networking and speaker sessions, mentored/guided by Salma Moosa and Vivek Srinivasan.
Open tech community 'for anyone interested in technology who would like to contribute to make Vizag a tech hub.' Developer/tech-leaning counterpart to the startup-focused groups.
Local node of Headstart Network Foundation (India's largest early-stage startup network) — formats include Startup Saturdays, Headstart Higher and Cofounder Search. Nationally established brand; Vizag activity appears intermittent.
Govt of Andhra Pradesh flagship initiative launched Dec 2016 (under then-CM Chandrababu Naidu) to make Vizag a fintech epicentre. The Vizag Fintech Festival is a multi-day event spanning BankTech, InsurTech, GovTech, Financial Inclusion ...
Inc42's Tier-2 startup launchpad (with DigitalOcean) bringing Vizag founders together with ecosystem stalwarts. Features BIGShift Pitch — 5 local startups pitch a jury; winners get DigitalOcean Hatch credits, support and training. Speake...
Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of India (Vizag Chapter / Industrial Park)
The flagship women-entrepreneur body of the region, founded Dec 1993 (originally 'Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh'), now ~10,000 members including ~5,000 established entrepreneurs. ALEAP ...
Two national women's business chambers with an AP footprint anchored in Vizag. The Women's Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (WICCI) launched its Andhra Pradesh chapter in Visakhapatnam (including an AP ...
'Naaripreneur For Her' Women Incubation
FIELD (Foundation for Incubation, Entrepreneurial Learning & Development) is IIM Visakhapatnam's incubator, operational since 2018, a MeitY TIDE 2.0 / NIDHI-recognised hub. Its 'Naaripreneur For Her' CSR-fun...
Founder, Aasmaan (FashionTech)
NIFT graduate and founder of Aasmaan, a fashion venture bridging unique/handloom fabrics with youth fashion. Notable as a Vizag woman founder who raised multiple rounds from international crowdfunding/platfo...
Founder, Venkatadri Vantillu (F&B)
Homegrown Vizag culinary entrepreneur who started a one-stove food venture at Siripuram in 2002 after family business losses; her signature sponge dosa grew into the well-known 'Venkatadri Vantillu' brand (n...
The city's IT cluster, on the coastal hills to the north. The APIIC built Millennium IT Towers and the surrounding IT SEZ hold delivery centres for Tech Mahindra, Wipro, WNS, Concentrix, Conduent, Infosys and Cyient, and this is where Fintech Valley Vizag was meant to happen. GITAM sits on the same corridor, which is where a large share of local hiring and campus incubation comes from.
3 companies 7 coworking
Strong in IT Services, Media
The harbour front, and the reason the city became an industrial one. Visakhapatnam Port is the only natural harbour on India's east coast and among the country's largest by cargo, handling coal, iron ore, petroleum and containers. Hindustan Shipyard sits at Gandhigram, and the Eastern Naval Command and the navy's submarine base are here too.
3 companies
Strong in Maritime, Defence
The heavy industry belt in the south west. The RINL Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, India's first shore based integrated steel plant, anchors the Ukkunagaram township, HPCL's Visakh refinery sits at Malkapuram, and the Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone occupies about 270 acres at Nadupuru nearby. It is an engineering and manufacturing base rather than a startup one, and it is where much of the city's industrial problem set and technical hiring comes from.
3 companies 3 coworking
Strong in Manufacturing, Healthtech
Answers about the Visakhapatnam startup scene
What does the startup ecosystem in Visakhapatnam look like?
Two layers, and they are very different sizes. The weight sits in the port and the industry around it, steel, refining, pharma manufacturing, shipbuilding and IT delivery centres, which is what employs the city. The founder led layer on top is small and young, strongest in IT services, fintech, SaaS and healthtech. The companies list above shows who is building what, filterable by vertical.
What is Visakhapatnam known for beyond the port and the steel plant?
Pharma and medical devices. Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City at Parawada holds 100 or more pharma units, and the Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone at Nadupuru is India's first dedicated medical devices park, with shared testing and manufacturing facilities that let a small device company make things it could not afford to set up alone. Hindustan Shipyard and the Eastern Naval Command also make the city the navy's east coast base.
What happened to Fintech Valley Vizag?
The state government launched it in December 2016 to make the city a fintech hub, with KPMG as knowledge partner, and it drew Visa, Paytm and HDFC Bank and ran a fintech festival and a blockchain conference. Momentum slowed after the change of state government in 2019. The IT SEZ at Rushikonda and the name are still the city's startup positioning, and several of the fintech and blockchain companies listed above date from that push.
Which incubators and coworking spaces are in Visakhapatnam?
The institutional layer is deep for a city this size. ā hub at Andhra University is the largest, with 120 or more startups incubated. GITAM runs GCIED and the Venture Development Centre at Rushikonda, IIM Visakhapatnam runs FIELD, which delivers the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme, and the Bio Valley Incubation Council sits inside AMTZ for bio and medtech. STPI runs the Kalpataru Industry 4.0 centre on the steel plant campus. The coworking section below lists the private spaces.
Are there investors and VCs in Visakhapatnam?
None that we can list. There is no verified fund or angel syndicate based in the city, and that is the clearest gap in the ecosystem. Founders here reach early capital through state grants, the campus incubators and national angel networks, and raise their institutional rounds from investors in Hyderabad, Bengaluru or Mumbai.
Where do founders network in Visakhapatnam?
Mostly through institutions. TiE runs its Andhra Pradesh chapter out of the AMTZ campus, GITAM's Venture Development Centre and E-Club run pitch sessions on campus, and ā hub runs hackathons and ideathons. The larger set pieces are the Global Tech Summit, BIGShift Vizag and the AP Digital Technology Summit rather than a regular meetup, and the big open Meetup groups in the city have been quiet since around 2021. The communities section below lists them.
Does eChai run events in Visakhapatnam?
Not at the moment. eChai ran a startup demo day at GITAM's Venture Development Centre in January 2024 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. eChai is free and open wherever it runs, with no application or membership fee.
Which are the top startup verticals in Visakhapatnam?
IT services and fintech lead, with SaaS, healthtech and the industrial and defence base close behind, and a small deeptech group working on robotics and materials. Use the vertical chips above to browse the companies in each.
Want to help restart eChai Visakhapatnam?
eChai Visakhapatnam ran a startup demo day at GITAM's Venture Development Centre in January 2024 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.
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