India has firmly established itself as the GCC capital of the world. As of FY26, the country is home to 2,117 Global Capability Centers (GCCs), operating across 3,728 units and employing approximately 2.36 million professionals. The ecosystem has grown by approximately 32% since FY21, but the bigger change is in what these centers do.
GCCs are increasingly taking ownership of global product development, Engineering and R&D, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data, Platforms, and other business-critical capabilities.
And within this rapidly expanding GCC ecosystem, Bengaluru has emerged as the country’s largest GCC hub– and a particularly important destination for global retail companies. The GCC Capital of India hosts 1080+ GCCs. What sets this apart is, Bengaluru hosts 320+Forbes G2000 unites, 280+ mid-market GCCs, 245+ PE-backed or acquired units.
Target’s Bengaluru GCC, for instance, has evolved into a technology innovation hub spanning AI, ML, in-house engineering, data science, and computer-generated imagery.
Meanwhile, Lowe’s Bengaluru GCC has grown to over 4,200 employees across Technology, Business Services, and Shared Services. As retailers continue to expand their India presence, GCC mandates are evolving from traditional support functions into more complex, business-critical capabilities.
As per reports, India is now home to approximately 180 Retail and FMCG GCCs employing more than 272,000 professionals. Retail GCC hiring nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025. Bengaluru alone accounts for approximately 84,000 Retail GCC professionals, making it India’s largest retail GCC talent hub.
This ecosystem includes publicly known centers operated by global retailers and consumer businesses such as Walmart Global Tech, Target, Lowe’s, Tesco, H&M, 7-Eleven, and others.
And for many of these companies, the role of the GCC is evolving far beyond a traditional delivery center. Leaders from Walmart Global Tech and Lowe’s describe how their India centers are becoming more integrated with the global enterprise and increasingly central to global product, technology, and business-critical mandates.
“We are already on that journey. GCCs are becoming more global and integrated.”- Balu Chaturvedula, Senior Vice President & Country Head, Walmart Global Tech India
“The gold standard GCC for Indian market and a strategic arm for Lowe’s.” – Ankur Mittal, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer & Managing Director, Lowe’s India
For Retail GCCs, Bengaluru’s advantage extends beyond cost to the depth of its technology, AI, and industry ecosystem:
Wayfair wanted to establish a strategic Engineering and R&D hub capable of strengthening its global technology capabilities, accelerating innovation, and supporting its long-term growth agenda.
The location decision therefore had to answer a critical question: Where could the company find the right combination of technology talent, retail expertise, innovation capacity, and long-term scalability?
Bengaluru emerged as the choice.
As the company’s CTO explained: “In terms of talent pool, particularly for ecommerce, I can’t imagine a better place than Bengaluru to be in. There’s a lot of innovation and ideation happening in Bengaluru, which is frankly, more advanced than the US. So, it seemed like a very natural choice to set up our center here.”– Fiona Tan- CTO, Wayfair
The GCC was designed to tap into Bengaluru’s engineering and digital ecosystem and talent while creating a long-term technology organization capable of supporting the company’s global business.
Bengaluru provides the talent and ecosystem foundation. The harder task is translating that advantage into an operating center- aligning the business case, talent model, governance, compliance, and launch roadmap from the outset.
Choosing the right city is only one part of the GCC setup decision.
The next question is equally important: Who can actually help build and scale the GCC? For organizations planning to set up a Global Capability Center in India, the choice of GCC setup partner can directly influence the speed, scale, quality, and long-term success of the center.
A GCC setup involves multiple interconnected decisions- location strategy, business case, operating model, entity setup, compliance, talent acquisition, leadership hiring, real estate, technology infrastructure, employer branding, governance, and eventual scale-up.
An effective GCC partner needs to translate strategy into execution across these interconnected decisions
The partner should be able to translate strategy into execution.
For CXOs evaluating potential GCC setup partners, some of the most important questions include:
Zinnov, with 24+ years of experience, has helped establish and scale 220+ GCCs worldwide, supporting Fortune 2000 and mid-market enterprises across industries.
For Wayfair, speed of execution was particularly important.
“Our partnership with Zinnov enabled us to accelerate the process of building the team in India. Given the speed at which Zinnov operates, our DNAs matched well.”– Rohit Kaila, Head of Technology and Site Leader, Wayfair India explained on Yourstory
Location advantage alone does not create a successful GCC; the business case, talent model, operating model, governance, and execution roadmap need to be designed together from the outset.
A successful setup requires a partner capable of connecting the business case, location, talent strategy, operating model, and execution roadmap from the beginning.
Planning a Retail GCC in India? Explore how Zinnov can support the journey from location strategy and operating model design through setup and scale.
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