Building Global Capability Centres in India: How Midsize Companies Unlock Global Value and Scalable Growth

published on 1 August 2025 | reading time approx. 4 minutes

Global Capability Centers or Offshore Delivery Centers or Design Centers, or also known simply as Technical Centers ("GCC"), are offshore service units set up by companies in a low-cost country to operate business functions such as finance, human resources, accounting, compliance, sales support, service delivery, software development, and product development, among others.

From the 1990s to 2010, GCCs were established in India with a high number of employees who do not require any special technical expertise or skills, mainly to benefit from cost and talent arbitrage. After 2010, these companies gained more confidence in India's strategic advantage and continued to invest in transforming these support centers into capability development centers. This growth path has also become visible in quantitative terms since 2010. The number of companies that have their GCC in India has more than doubled from approximately 700 in 2010 to over 1,760 (with more than 3,050 GCC units) in 2024. In fiscal year 2024, India's GCCs generated revenue of USD 65 billion and employed 1.9 million professionals. By FY2030, the GCC landscape is expected to generate 99-105 billion dollar in annual revenue and the number of companies will exceed 2,500.

In the midst of this rapidly expanding GCC ecosystem in India, where a notable GCC presence of Fortune 500 companies is taking all the spotlight, a quieter but more dynamic wave is redrawing the GCC landscape – one driven by mid-sized or mid-sized companies (with annual revenue between 100 million dollar and 1 billion dollar). In fiscal year 2025, over 480 mid-market companies established nearly 680+ GCC entities in India, employing over 210,000 professionals. These medium-sized GCC units account for 22 percdent of the total GCC units in India.

Smaller scale, but greater impact

These mid-sized GCCs differ from the Fortune 500 GCCs in the way they work – they focus more on building strategic capabilities and employ a comparatively leaner and more flexible operating model. With about 300-450 employees per center (vs. 1,250 for non-mid-sized hubs), these mid-sized companies focus on providing high-quality and specialized services as opposed to their larger competitors who have an end-to-end product and platform. Many of these mid-sized GCCs specialize in deep tech and act as centers for artificial intelligence/machine learning, cloud-native platforms, cybersecurity, and data science.

Leading centers and emerging leaders

Bengaluru dominates the mid-sized GCC landscape in India, hosting 34 percent of all new mid-sized SaaS and product-focused GCC entities established in the last two years. These companies chose Bengaluru because of its mature start-up ecosystem, technical talent, and GCC success stories that emanated from this city. Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Delhi NCR are also among the preferred destinations for GCC formation. Other cities such as Ahmedabad, Kochi and Coimbatore are attracting initial experiments with medium-sized centres, supported by lower overall costs and a growing supply of talent.

India's offer for the middle class

India offers a number of benefits for mid-sized companies, such as access to diverse and in-depth talent with technical, digital, and professional backgrounds. The governments of various states support medium-sized companies through the GCC policy by offering plug-and-play space as well as incentives based on location, investment level and job creation. In addition, medium-sized companies can take advantage of India's cost advantage, which is 30-50 percent lower than that of their Western competitors. To make effective use of this opportunity, the choice of the appropriate business model should be aligned with the parent company's overarching vision, the range of services to be provided, and the long-term investment strategy. These models include, but are not limited to:

Owned centers (company-owned and corporate-operated): The parent company retains full control over operations, processes, and quality standards. She is responsible for the initial setup and alignment with the company's goals and standards.
Hybrid models: The parent company remains 100 percent owner, but the initial setup (incorporation, hiring, facilities) is facilitated by a third-party provider. This model provides more flexibility to leverage external expertise, while keeping core functions and service delivery with the company itself.
Joint ventures: This model offers the advantage and convenience of being able to draw on the expertise of a partner and share the risks and resources.
Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT): A third party initially establishes and owns the legal entity for the GCC or a department within their organization, manages the facility and provides services during the operational phase, and finally transfers ownership to the parent company on pre-agreed terms and valuations. This approach allows companies to launch with smaller teams at a lower cost in a limited amount of time.

Key Considerations for Building a Medium-Sized GCC in India

Setting up a medium-sized GCC in India requires a well-thought-out strategic approach. The process should start with a comprehensive strategy development and design phase, in which the company formulates a clear vision, evaluates different operating models – taking into account the business, legal, tax and regulatory aspects – and establishes a roadmap for market entry in India.

This phase must include a thorough market assessment, a site analysis based on cost and infrastructure factors, and the creation of a business plan. Equally important are operational and programmatic aspects such as workflow structuring, program management, benchmarking with other organizations, workplace and IT architecture, and a solid talent lifecycle management strategy to attract and retain skilled professionals. Given India's dynamic and complex regulatory and business landscape, engaging a local partner with extensive expertise can significantly increase execution efficiency and ensure the long-term sustainability of the GCC.