Koramangala 3rd Block – Where Bengaluru’s Billions Were Born

(The Billionaire Street That Built India’s Startup Capital)

There are posh areas in every city.
Then there’s Koramangala 3rd Block — the neighborhood that didn’t just grow rich, it created rich people.

This isn’t just another colony with big bungalows and bigger gates. This is the birthplace of India’s startup revolution. A 1.5 km stretch that has silently minted more millionaires and unicorn founders than some entire Indian states.

Let’s lift the hood on Bengaluru’s most expensive and powerful postcode — and why even today, every ambitious entrepreneur dreams of starting up here.

🔥 Where Billionaires Actually Live — and Why

When you walk through Koramangala 3rd Block, you can feel it — the air hums differently. You’re standing where Flipkart was founded, where India’s digital middle class was imagined, and where a dozen dreamers turned laptops into legacies.

Some of India’s richest tech minds call (or have called) this area home — people like Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, Nandan Nilekani, Kris Gopalakrishnan and Ajit Isaac.
Their bungalows aren’t just houses; they’re monuments to the city’s entrepreneurial madness.

Ajit Isaac’s ₹67 crore plot deal didn’t just make headlines — it redefined what “premium” means in South Bengaluru. Nandan Nilekani’s trust quietly moved crores through this postal code. Sachin Bansal once ran Flipkart operations out of a modest Koramangala house that later became a pilgrimage spot for every startup founder.

Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan made headlines when his family office, SGK Investment Trust, snapped up two prime properties in Koramangala 3rd Block Extension for a combined ₹76 crore in 2021. One was a sprawling 10,161 sq. ft. bungalow purchased from Bikaner House Ltd for about ₹40 crore, while the other was a 9,600 sq. ft. vacant plot acquired for roughly ₹36 crore. Together, the deals cemented Gopalakrishnan’s footprint in Bengaluru’s most elite enclave—popularly dubbed “Billionaire Street”—where land values now rival those of Mumbai’s Pali Hill and Delhi’s Jor Bagh.

This is where Bengaluru’s “Billionaire Street” tag was born — not through inheritance, but through innovation.

💥 Why 3rd Block Became the Billionaire Magnet

1. Scarcity meets legacy.
Plots here aren’t just land. They’re vintage investments. Large parcels, limited availability, and a quiet, leafy vibe make them worth over ₹20,000–₹30,000 per sq. ft — and still rising. Once you enter, you don’t leave.

2. Central yet personal.
You’re minutes away from Outer Ring Road, HSR, and Electronic City — but when you’re in 3rd Block, you feel like you’re in a private island of calm inside a chaotic city.

3. Power neighbors.
Your neighbor isn’t just rich — they’re relevant. A CEO, an angel investor, a fund manager, or a founder who just exited for $100 million. Networking here happens over morning walks and coffee, not LinkedIn.

4. Symbol of status.
In Bengaluru’s ecosystem, owning a home in Koramangala 3rd Block signals one thing — you’ve arrived. It’s Silicon Valley’s Palo Alto, Mumbai’s Malabar Hill, and Delhi’s Jor Bagh rolled into one tech-flavored postcode.

🚀 The Cradle of Indian Startups

Forget fancy coworking spaces. Koramangala was India’s first real incubator — long before venture capital became a buzzword.

From this single neighborhood emerged:

• Flipkart – started in a small rented house in 3rd Block before it became India’s first e-commerce giant.
• Swiggy – began its early operations nearby, delivering its first few meals across Koramangala streets.
• BigBasket, Byju’s, Zivame, Zoomcar, and dozens more used Koramangala addresses as their launchpads.

Even the cafés and bakeries here are accidental offices. Many startup ideas were born over filter coffee at Third Wave, Truffles, or Hole in the Wall. Investors and founders still meet here like it’s sacred ground.

Koramangala isn’t just a neighborhood — it’s a startup nursery.

👨‍💻 Why Young Entrepreneurs Still Flock to Koramangala

Because energy matters more than infrastructure.
Koramangala has a pulse you can’t replicate anywhere else in Bengaluru.

• Affordable rental pockets nearby. Early-stage founders can still rent a small workspace in 1st or 5th Block without selling their kidneys.
• Access to investors. Most venture capitalists and angel networks are minutes away.
• Talent pool. You’re surrounded by designers, coders, marketers, and dreamers.
• The culture of hustle. Failures aren’t mocked here; they’re expected. A second chance is just a chai away.

There’s a reason every third LinkedIn profile in Koramangala says “Founder & CEO.”
It’s not arrogance — it’s environment.

💸 The Price of Belonging

The average rate for a good house in 3rd Block now touches ₹21,000–₹25,000 per sq. ft.
Plots? Easily ₹8–70 crore, depending on frontage and location.
Luxury homes are selling faster than they’re built, and brokers have waiting lists of high-net-worth buyers.

For those who can’t buy in 3rd Block, just renting an office nearby feels like an upgrade in credibility.
It’s the classic Bengaluru badge of honor — “Our HQ is in Koramangala.”

🚗 The Dark Side — Traffic and Chaos

Let’s be honest — paradise comes with potholes.

Koramangala’s traffic is the city’s worst-kept secret.
The ongoing Ejipura flyover construction has turned driving here into a full-time sport. You’ll spend as much time on Hosur Road as you would on a short flight to Chennai.

But people still stay. Why?
Because no amount of honking can drive away ambition.

🌆 The Magnetic Circle of Influence

Koramangala sits at the intersection of money, brains, and ambition.
It connects to MG Road in 20 minutes, HSR in 10, and Electronic City in 25 — assuming you start before the rest of the city wakes up.

Its proximity to Forum Mall, Christ University, St. John’s, and major corporate offices makes it the most convenient ecosystem for both living and scaling.

Every Uber driver in Bengaluru knows: when you drop someone in 3rd Block, you’re probably dropping off someone who either made it big — or is planning to.

🏁 The Verdict: Billionaire Street is Just a Symbol

Koramangala 3rd Block isn’t special because billionaires live there.
Billionaires live there because it’s special.

It’s where Bengaluru’s middle class dreamt bigger, where college grads turned garages into global brands, and where failure was treated as tuition for success.

It’s the only place in India where a tea stall owner can serve chai to a future unicorn founder — and both feel they’re in the right place at the right time.

Koramangala 3rd Block isn’t just a street.
It’s the sound of ambition revving under the hood of Bengaluru’s chaos.
And if you listen closely — you can still hear the quiet hum of the next Flipkart being built somewhere behind those bougainvillea-covered gates.

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