As the number of start-ups grow in Kolkata, angel investors are taking notice.
If you thought startups meant only Bengaluru, think again. The bug has bitten Kolkata and angel investors are suddenly sitting up and taking notice.
In just the last one month, a restaurant chain in the city has bagged angel funding, so has an education app.
NASSCOM, the IT body, had set a target of 10,000 startups by 2023 across the country. It now says the goal will be met much faster with the way big ideas are landing, many of which are from Kolkata.
The start-up bug has bitten Kolkata
Kolkata's biggest startup story in recent times is a momo chain going all popular. Two college friends had pooled in Rs 30,000 seven years ago to set up their first shop. They now have 52 outlets in six cities with an investment of Rs 10 crore from the Indian Angel Network.
"I want to make this brand an international brand, want to go all over the world. That's what our dream is. We want an Indian brand go abroad. And why not?" said Binod Homagai, co-founder, Wow! Momo.
His friend, partner and co-founder Sagar Daryani's has more immediate plans; sixty more outlets in the next two years and an IPO in seven. He feels the startup bug is in Kolkata to stay.
"Nowadays, being an entrepreneur has become the cool thing," he says.
A spurt of big ideas has investors hotfooting to Kolkata. NASSCOM, which set up its startup warehouse in January with state support, is pointing the way. Senior associate, NASSCOM, Ravi Ranjan, says, "We have seen more than 200 applications on our website in eight months and we have selected 13 world class global product companies from Kolkata".
President of Indian Angel Network, Padmaja Ruparel, who has invested in Wow! Momo is excited. "I am seeing entrepreneurial genes kicking in, I am seeing entrepreneurs who are driven, there is passion and, most important for me, that commitment which says, I want to make it happen. And that will make Kolkata happen as well," she said.
Funds are flowing in. Om Agarwal, a 23-year-old law student from NUJS, Kolkata, will launch an education app in a couple of weeks. He has just won investment from a startup investor Ravi Agarwal, the details about whom are not being shared, but who might just be a big name.
"EazyCoach, my startup, will give students one marketplace where they can get help with admissions and money to travel and study at colleges abroad," says Om Agarwal. "We are starting with services to students in India but will soon reach out to students in China and Brazil."
Startups with unique ideas are flourishing; like Anirudh Poddar and Aditya Ladsaria's Chai Break restaurant, which was started on a capital of Rs 50,000 five years ago, and is up to six restaurants already.
"There are lots of coffee chains in the country but we want to focus on tea," said Anirudh Poddar.
The startup fever in Kolkata seems set to be on the rise and could make the city of joy the country's next startup destination.