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The large story
Aarushi Kilawat is a trend entrepreneur from India’s Jaipur, a small metropolis with lower than 5 million residents — a far cry from Indian metropolises like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
Her model, The Loom Artwork, works with over 500 artisans to make attire from handwoven or hand-embroidered materials discovered throughout India’s small cities since 2018.
These garments find yourself in high-end shops of Mumbai, India’s monetary capital, with a inhabitants of over 20 million, and in India’s capital of Delhi, the place they retail between 15,000 Indian rupees and 30,000 rupees ($170-$350). Some even discover their technique to shops in Spain and the U.S.
Three years in the past, the 31-year-old branched out into jewellery, pushed by a want to broaden her product line and impressed partly by pitches heard on a preferred TV present, “Shark Tank India.”
“I’ve watched Shark Tank recurrently after it launched,” she mentioned, including that the present helped make entrepreneurship a dinner-table subject throughout India. She believes her upcycled brass jewellery model may very well be an excellent match to make a pitch on the present.
In the course of the pandemic, on-line buying in India went into overdrive, resulting in a increase in startups. Specifically, 2021, the yr when Shark Tank India launched, was a golden interval for startups. The sector reportedly raised $42 billion then, the very best ever in a yr.
As of February 2025, the federal government acknowledged 157,000 startups throughout India, with than 51% present in mid-sized city facilities often called Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities by inhabitants dimension and improvement ranges.
Decrease working prices, higher connectivity and a rising expertise pool have made these smaller cities fertile floor for founders.
Aarushi is considered one of many entrepreneurs constructing manufacturers from these smaller hubs in India, all aiming to scale past their native markets.
Increase in entrepreneurship
On Monday, Amazon India mentioned that small cities have been “witnessing outstanding progress” on its Amazon World Promoting platform.
Exporters from the small cities of Karur and Erode in Tamil Nadu crossed gross sales of $180 million in 2024, whereas Junagadh and Anand in Gujarat surpassed $100 million, Amazon mentioned within the launch. Haridwar and Panipat have been among the many different cities on the record.
“India’s wealth creation story is quick decentralizing,” mentioned Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher at Hurun India, a analysis agency. He added that whereas metro cities nonetheless dominate, smaller cities like Coimbatore, Surat, Indore and Lucknow are rising as highly effective engines of wealth.
One instance is the direct-to-consumer skincare model Minimalist, additionally based mostly out of Jaipur, which launched by way of a easy Instagram put up in the midst of the pandemic in 2020.
In simply 4 years, the enterprise quickly grew its gross sales to $42 million from $3 million, based on knowledge from market analysis agency Tracxn. That scale and its recognition with prospects on-line caught the eye of Unilever’s Indian arm, which in January this yr acquired Minimalist for two,706 crore rupees, valuing it at over 5 instances its annual income.
“Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities aren’t simply taking part within the e-commerce ecosystem. They’re powering it,” mentioned Zaiba Sarang, co-founder of e-commerce transport platform iThink Logistics.
“Over half of our day by day deliveries now originate from Tier-2 and Tier-3 places, with outbound volumes rising sooner than ever,” she mentioned.
Generational shift
Traditionally, many small cities in India have been manufacturing hubs — Agra for leather-based and carpets, Surat and Jaipur for textiles.
Their decrease working price, cheaper labor and established provide networks are drawing a brand new era of entrepreneurs again dwelling.
Kilawat, who studied in London and labored in Mumbai, mentioned organising her enterprise in Jaipur — often called “The Pink Metropolis” for its rosy-hued previous city — made sense.
“Jaipur has a thriving ecosystem of textile and handicraft producers,” she mentioned, including that it makes sourcing and customizing her merchandise simpler.
Sparks of entrepreneurship are additionally seen within the youthful era inheriting family-run companies in small cities.
Moderately than manufacturing for large manufacturers, many younger second- and third-generation enterprise house owners are preferring to construct a model and promote to prospects instantly,” mentioned Raunak Singhvi, an angel investor centered on startups in small cities.
One agency in Tirupur that does contract manufacturing of “western put on” for large retailers is now seeing its subsequent era strike out and launch their very own model, he mentioned.
The expansion of e-commerce through the pandemic improved entry to markets for small producers. This, coupled with direct-to-customer gross sales channels and the rise of social media advertising and marketing, has made model constructing simpler, say specialists.
As soon as they scale up, these manufacturers typically get away of the net sphere to open retail areas, with this phenomenon most seen throughout malls in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities similar to Surat and Lucknow.
Pre-pandemic, native or regional manufacturers occupied as much as 3% of mall house. At this time, they make up practically 30%, mentioned Susil Dungarwal, founding father of Past Squarefeet, a mall consultancy in India, who added that this transformation is because of demand from many small-town, family-owned companies increasing.
Entrepreneurs from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities in India “have gotten daring and taking dangers”, mentioned Dungarwal, including that he thinks they “have been impressed by Shark Tank.”
As entrepreneurship is on the rise within the nation’s smaller cities, what started as actuality TV has turn into a actuality for hundreds of latest founders throughout India.
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