'No City Comes Close': Founder After Relocating Startup To Bengaluru From Chennai

An entrepreneur who moved his business to Bengaluru a year ago has described his decision as one of the most impactful moves he has made in his business and personal life. Founder Harish Varadharajan moved his Chennai-based startup Fragaria to India's tech capital last year, stating that despite giving his all to build a global product in Tamil Nadu, a relocation was inevitable.

A year on, the decision appears to have worked, as Varadharajan provided an update about his business and how no city came close to Bengaluru when it came to scaling up a business,

"One year since we made the move from Chennai to Bengaluru. Hands down, one of the best decisions I've made, personally and professionally," wrote Vardharajan in a LinkedIn post.

"Personally, we have lived in five cities across the world over the last 10 years. Nothing comes close to Bengaluru for year-round weather."

While Bengaluru is notorious for its traffic, Vardharajan said his team had managed to carefully work their way around the issue by using metro, travelling in off-peak hours and living on the city outskirts.

"And the traffic? We have spent more than an hour in traffic only twice in the last year. Metro + off-peak travel + living on the outskirts probably helps," he said.

"Professionally, Bengaluru has the largest market for premium fruits among South Indian cities. The climate brings down our cost of operations. And you're a taxi ride away from some of the best investors in the country."

Vardharajan advised that if anyone was looking to start a company in India, Bengaluru was the 'obvious answer'.

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Social Media Reactions

As the post gained traction, one of the users said: "Lovely to hear that Bengaluru has worked so well for you. Just a small thought though, we can celebrate Bengaluru without losing sight of the possibilities and people in the cities we come from." Meanwhile, another added: "Chennai needs to celebrate capitalism as it's still slow to grow this culture, and it has to start from policymakers on how to build this culture which attracts more capital, talent and speedy infra upgradation."

A third commented: "Agree. Don't know you Harish, but echo your sentiment! We moved Neufin Energy from Mumbai to Bengaluru recently. Wondering why we didn't do it sooner."

A fourth said: "Bengaluru has its own way of pulling people into the startup ecosystem. You come here for one reason and somehow end up meeting founders, engineers, investors and customers from completely different worlds. The city definitely has its problems, but the concentration of opportunity here is hard to ignore."