Technology startups prefer Punjab to metros

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 25

The absence of seed capital and venture funding support notwithstanding, a couple of startups in the technology space have relocated to Punjab in the past few years. According to entrepreneurs, low operating cost and good Wi-Fi infrastructure are major factors for attracting new investments.

Jorie Healthcare Partners, a Chicago-based company providing revenue cycle management and practice management services to the US healthcare industry, set up an Indian arm — Jorie Healthcare (P) Ltd — in Mohali with an investment of over $7 million in September 2019. Since its inception, it has grown from 11 employees to over 250 today.

Dwelling upon the reasons behind setting up operations in Punjab, Jorie Healthcare Partners’ CEO Anita Sumra Singh said, “I was overwhelmed by the growth of industry in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi, but there was stagnation. I wanted fresh approach and that’s when I decided to visit Chandigarh. The entire belt spanning Punjab and Himachal is evolving and there is a huge enthusiasm. I would prefer to invest in such an environment.”

The company intends to play a pivotal role in digitising data of Indian healthcare system.

Similarly, S30 — an edtech startup that prepares US for FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) companies via live zoom classes — relocated to Ludhiana in April this year. Initially, they were based in Chandigarh.

“The Covid brought an opportunity to make the whole team remote first. We have realised that the startup community doesn’t need Bangalore or San Francisco to start operations and it can be built out of Ludhiana as well. Over the past four months of the pandemic, we have a monthly recurring revenue of $30,000,” said Jaspinder Singh, founder, S30.

Similarly, Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, an NRI, returned home in 2015 with over a decade-long experience with MNCs and incorporated Agnext — an agritech company — and chose Punjab as its head office. Similarly, Sarvjeet Singh Virk, co-founder and MD of Finvasia Group of Companies, relocated to Mohali this year from Chandigarh.