Bengaluru is the world's fastest-growing tech hub

Bengaluru has emerged as the world's fastest-growing mature tech ecosystem in the world since 2016, followed by the European cities of London, Munich, Berlin and Paris, with India's financial centre of Mumbai in sixth place, according to new research released in London on Thursday.

Dealroom.co data analysed by London & Partners – the Mayor of London's international trade and investment agency – reveals that investment in the Karnataka capital of Bengaluru grew 5.4 times from USD 1.3 billion in 2016 to USD 7.2 billion in 2020, with the Maharashtra capital of Mumbai growing 1.7 times from USD 0.7 billion to USD 1.2 billion in the same period.

The UK capital of London registered an impressive three times growth between 2016 and 2020, rising from USD 3.5 billion to USD 10.5 billion.

"It's fantastic to see that Bengaluru and London ranked as the top two fastest growing global tech hubs for VC investment. Our two great cities share mutual strengths in entrepreneurship and innovation – creating lots of opportunities for tech investors and companies to do business across both regions," said Hemin Bharucha, Chief Representative of India at London & Partners.

"London has a strong trade and investment relationship with cities across India and today's figures show the opportunities for future partnerships between UK and India on technology. Despite the pandemic, tech companies in London and India are continuing to lead the way in creating game changing technologies – especially in high growth sectors such as EdTech and Fintech," he said.

Bengaluru is also ranked sixth for the world's tech venture capitalist (VC) investments, on a global list topped by Beijing and San Francisco, New York, Shanghai and London making up the top five. Mumbai comes in at No. 21 in the worldwide ranking, with Boston and Singapore among the other high-ranking cities.

Skillmine, a Bengaluru-headquartered tech company offering new generation IT consulting and managed services which expanded to London last year, highlighted access to "like-minded tech entrepreneurs alongside a deep tech talent pool" as the highlight of what has been referred to as India's Silicon Valley in the past.