As India is emerging as a GCC (Global Capability Centre) hub, a much larger opportunity awaits it – it can aspire to be the global capital for mid-market GCCs.
Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad have dominated the mid-market GCC landscape in the country, attracting about 80 per cent of new units established in the past five years. The fact that about 45 mid-market GCCs or 30 per cent of all the GCCs set up in the last two years are in the segment are established in these cities reflects the growing importance of this segment.
Interestingly, tier-ii locations such as Ahmedabad, Coimbatore and Thiruvananthapuram are emerging as a lucrative option for early-stage mid-market GCCs.
These centers are evolving rapidly from execution engines to market-makers, and increasingly, to policy influencers to become the capital of mid-market GCCs.
“The opportunity ahead for India is even larger. With 30,000-40,000 mid-sized enterprises globally, the addressable market for India’s mid-market GCCs is diversified,” a new report by Nasscom and Zinnov said.
India, which is already home to over 480 mid-sized GCCs, or about one-fourth of the total GCCs in the country, is better equipped to tap this opportunity and can become the capital of mid-market GCCs in the world, the report, India’s GCC Leap: Powering Global Mid-market Momentum, said.
“The addressable market for India is quite huge. There are a total of 130,000 to 150,000 mid-market companies across the globe. Out of this global pool, about 30,000 to 40,000 represent the addressable opportunity for India,” the report said.
Mid-market GCCs are those set up by mid-sized enterprises with annual global revenues between $100 million and $1 billion.
They focus on delivering high-value, specialised services while maintaining a leaner operational model than larger GCCs. They are highly concentrated in the software and Internet vertical, with a focus on deeptech and other emerging technology areas.
Advantage Bengaluru
Bengaluru being the country’s digital capital with the mature digital and tech talent, established start-up ecosystem, and proven GCC success stories is an ideal destination for Mid-sized SaaS (software-as-a-service) and product companies.
Proactive government support, affordable state-of-the-art infrastructure, and the potential to scale have made Hyderabad a rising favorite among mid-market digital and engineering GCCs, while Chennai, which attracts a higher proportion of mid-market GCCs due to cost advantages compared to other tier-i cities, proactive government incentives, improved infrastructure, and rising talent availability.
“Improved connectivity, lower overall costs (cost of living, talent, etc.), and targeted incentives in places like Ahmedabad and Coimbatore are attracting early-stage mid-market GCC experimentation,” the report said.
Challenges
The report, however, flagged certain challenges that hinder the pace of growth of mid-market GCCs. “Mid-market GCCs struggle to attract early-career talent due to lower brand recall and limited visibility on top campuses,” the report said.
It called for starting university programs, co-branding with industry bodies, and running early-career hackathons.
Published on April 22, 2025
