Visakhapatnam

What is on in Visakhapatnam.

• Sat 31 Oct 6 pm eChai Startup Demo Day

Visakhapatnam's startups, on one map.

Where founders in Visakhapatnam build.

Questions about Visakhapatnam.

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.