Snapshot of businesses which are solving real problems of the garden city of Bengaluru.

Businesses of Bengaluru

Bengaluru has several successful businesses, which are not startups.

I visited Bengaluru to explore the real businesses. I looked away from the limelight of startups. I found a thriving business community from coffee to bakery to hotels to food retail.

Some notable businesses are…

1. Darshinis: There are more than 5000, yet there is demand for more. Each new darshini creates employment for the low skilled workers. Darshini owners become millionaires feeding millions at affordable prices.
2. Bakeries: Iyengar bakeries dot the city. They sell tasty and desi bakery items such as benne cookies ( butter cookies) or aloo (potato) bun. First one started in 1888.
3. Budget hotel brands: Fab hotels and Treebo are based in Bengaluru. They are building nationwide chains to cater to sub INR 2000 segment. I stayed in Treebo.
4. Car rentals and two wheeler rentals: Though they call themselves startups, they are useful for the congested city. Zoom Car, Vogo, Driveeazy are three of them. I used Zoomcar to drive to Chikamagalur coffee plantations.
5. Concierge services: Dunzo is the most innovative of the lot. It is selling slices of timeto people. One can order trivial tasks such as picking soda from the supermarket. I ordered biscuits, razor and food from Dunzo. They are in Gurgaon now.
6. Breweries: It’s a cottage industry now ( more than 40). Asia’s biggest is here too. Bengaluru claims to be the original beer capital of the country. Gurgaon is challenging it.
7. Coffee chains: Flying Squirrel, Third Wave Coffee Roasters and Alchemy are amongst the new independent coffee brands taking on Starbucks and CCDs. There are homegrown brands such as Maiyas and Hatti Kapi. Bizibean and Blue Tokai of Delhi-NCR are their competitors.
8. Co-working spaces: Bengaluru is the co-working capital of the country. It has more than 50 and counting. No wonder it is the startup capital of the country, followed by Gurgaon.