heres a mystery that has not yet been unraveled despite having some of the biggest global tech companies set up shop and also a vibrant ecosystem that supports startups why does hyderabad not have a long list of unicorns startups that hit a 1 billion valuation to boast aboutin indias unicorn race bengaluru understandably is the frontrunner with over 35 startups and keeps adding to the list it is followed by delhi ncr with 20 and even pune and chennai have five and three eachwhere is hyderabad in this unicorn raceit has a grand total of just one homegrown unicorn darwinbox which checked into this elite club in january 2022 one can also include saas player zenoti which started out as managemyspa and shifted its headquarters to the us in 2014 or even highradius a saas fintech player that had moved to us by 2008hyderabad has always been a big entrepreneurial hub but for some reason it has not been so active in the current wave of entrepreneurship says mahesh parasuraman cofounder of bengalurubased pe player amicus capital partners im surprised especially as it has all the ingredients of a good place the infrastructure is better than bengaluru it offers a better quality of life and real estate is cheaper but for some reason it hasnt developed as a startup hub the way it should havepointing out that even gurugram or delhi ncr have come up in the past 34 years parasuraman says it probably just has to do with the level of activity within the ecosystembut the tide could now be turningdarwinbox could be hyderabads breakthrough moment just like flipkart was for bengaluru feels caspian debt managing director ceo avishek gupta flipkart was the first real unicorn out of the bengaluru ecosystem that went on to spawn other unicornsso why did hyderabad lag behind experts point out that a key reason for hyderabad missing the bus was the statehood agitation that queered the pitch for startup ecosystem while other cities like bengaluru and delhi ncr raced ahead during this crucial growth phaseduring 2009 and 2014 because of the political situation things did slow down a bit admits srinivas rao mahankali ceo of thubadds gupta of caspian debt while both hyderabad and bengaluru started off with an it services focus during the telangana statehood struggle things moved dramatically fast for bengaluru and hyderabad lost quite a few good years also bengaluru was quick to shift gears to products with techies working for the big services players moving out to set up productoriented firmsin the case of hyderabad the flipkart kind of tipping point did not happen because of the statehood struggle gupta addshere parasuraman points out that successful startups help create a fertile ecosystem for entrepreneurswhile early anchor winners like flipkart myntra ola and taxiforsure spurred a lot of activity in bengaluru those like policybazaar zomato and snapdeal did the same for delhi ncr i think its just about an ecosystem where people have made money