India’s Startup Reset, Unacademy’s Offline Pivot, and RBI Targets 100Cr UPI Users

For two decades, India’s startup mythology has been geographically rigid. If you were serious, you moved to Bengaluru. If you wanted capital, credibility, and unicorn ambition, you moved to Bengaluru. Everything else was peripheral. That mental map is now breaking - not because of ideology, but because of economics.

Kerala Startup Mission’s “Thirike” campaign, designed to pull Malayali tech talent back from Silicon Valley and Bengaluru, is not symbolic. It is strategic. It reflects a broader institutional shift toward what policymakers now call “distributed innovation.” India is no longer trying to build one Silicon Valley. It is trying to build many smaller, more specialized ones.

This is not a cyclical migration. It is structural.

The startup ecosystem is undergoing geographic de-risking. For years, Bengaluru absorbed the costs of concentration - wage inflation, housing chaos, infrastructure breakdown, burnout - because founders believed density itself was a moat. Today, that assumption is being questioned. Tier-2 cities are no longer fallback options. They are becoming deliberate choices.

The reason is simple: survival math.

Operating costs in Tier-2 cities are 30-60% lower. Office rents are a fraction. Salaries are materially cheaper. Attrition is lower. For early-stage startups, this doesn’t just save money - it buys time. A ₹10 crore round stretches to nearly 30 months in Jaipur. In Bengaluru, it barely touches 18. That extra year can be the difference between product-market fit and shutdown.

But the real advantage isn’t cost. It’s retention.

Smaller cities produce a different kind of loyalty. Engineers job-hop less. Teams stay through rough patches. Emotional commitment is higher. And in startups, continuity matters more than raw talent. Execution compounds. Every resignation resets momentum.

Still, Tier-2 cities aren’t utopias. They’re battlegrounds.

As talent flows back from the US and metros, a phenomenon founders quietly call “salary arrogance” is emerging. Returnees arrive with compensation expectations anchored to Silicon Valley or Bengaluru. Local startups built on ₹10-12 LPA structures suddenly face ₹20-25 LPA demands. This destabilizes early teams and introduces resentment. States are now trying to manage this actively, channeling returnees into advisory, enterprise, or leadership roles rather than early-stage teams.

This is India’s third wave of reverse brain drain. The first followed the dotcom crash. The second came after 2008. This one is driven by AI layoffs, visa fatigue, and the quiet implosion of Bengaluru’s livability. Tier-2 cities are not just cheaper, they are psychologically breathable.

But cost arbitrage is temporary.

Austin and Miami taught us that. Once capital arrives, rents rise. Salaries inflate. The advantage disappears. The only sustainable moat is not cost, but specificity.

That is where this shift becomes interesting.

Coimbatore is emerging as a deep-tech and hardware hub. Jaipur is becoming an AI and enterprise SaaS base. Kochi is building fintech and maritime-tech density. Pune remains biotech-heavy. Startups are no longer choosing cities based on what they lack, but on what they uniquely offer.

Venture capital is quietly following. Regional scouting networks are expanding. Founders are being discovered before they ever touch Bengaluru. Geography is no longer a credibility proxy. Execution is.

The deepest impact may be in deep-tech. Hardware, robotics, biotech, and manufacturing don’t belong in glass towers. They need land, supply chains, patience, and proximity to physical systems. Tier-2 cities offer exactly that.

This is why the Tier-2 shift isn’t a trend. It’s an alignment of incentives.

Founders get runway. Employees get stability. States get prestige. Investors get efficiency. The only casualty is the myth of a single startup capital.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world - Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

“Paison Ki Tangi”: Unacademy To Pivot Offline Business To Franchise Model By April

Bengaluru-based Unacademy will pivot its offline centres to a franchise model by April, exiting company-run classrooms to adopt a more asset-light, capital-efficient structure.

As outlined by CEO Gaurav Munjal in an internal note, a move that follows the collapse of its proposed amalgamation with upGrad over valuation difference.

Read more here

“Abhi Toh Aur Badhega”: UPI Can Scale To 100 Cr Active Users, Says RBI Deputy Governor

The Unified Payments Interface can scale to nearly 100 Cr active users from about 40 Cr today, RBI deputy governor T Rabi Sankar said, pointing to the headroom still left in India’s digital payments adoption.

Financial services secretary M Nagaraju added that the government is also pushing to expand UPI’s global footprint, with a particular focus on East Asia.

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“Hum Saath Saath Hai”: FMCG Startup Mitra To Merge With BSE-Listed Tierra Agrotech, Eyes IPO This Year

FMCG startup Mitra is set to merge with BSE-listed Tierra Agrotech, with the combined entity eyeing a public listing by September 2026.

The merger is aimed at pooling strengths across seed production and food processing to build a vertically integrated farm-to-fork brand. Following the announcement, Tierra Agrotech’s stock slipped 5% to trade at ₹46, signaling near-term market caution.

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1. Femtech brand Pee Safe has raised $32 Mn (₹290 Cr) in a Series C round led by Netmeds-backer OrbiMed through a mix of primary and secondary share sales, strengthening its growth runway.

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2. Wint Wealth has secured ₹250 Cr in a funding round led by Vertex Ventures, with participation from 3one4 Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Arkam Ventures, and Zerodha’s Rainmatter. The capital will be used to expand its corporate bond offerings and capitalize its NBFC arm.

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3. CloudSEK has raised $10 Mn in a B2 round featuring a mix of primary and secondary transactions, with participation from Connecticut Innovations. The capital will be used to accelerate its US expansion and set up a regional hub in Connecticut for operations, hiring, and partnerships.

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4. Misochain Technologies has raised ₹18 Cr to scale the manufacturing of indigenous, flight-critical aerospace components, as it deepens its play in defense and commercial aviation. The Bengaluru-based startup will deploy the capital to set up a dedicated manufacturing facility.

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