On an autumn morning in Srinagar, two young men stand beside a row of bright green electric bikes lined neatly near Lal Chowk. The bikes hum softly as they connect to charging docks. Commuters stop, curious. A college student unlocks one with a QR code and rides away through the narrow streets.
That small moment captures what is changing in Kashmir.
The bikes belong to Curv Ebikes, a startup founded in 2023 by Sheikh Yameen and Zubair Bhat. The idea was simple: make travel easier and cleaner in a city where traffic often crawls. They began with 50 bikes. Two years later, there are 150 bikes and 11 stations across Srinagar.
“We wanted people to feel that movement here could be efficient and sustainable,” says Yameen, standing by the riverfront. “Each ride saves a few minutes and a bit of air.”
Curv’s 80,000 rides have already reduced emissions equal to what 7,500 trees would absorb. The bikes have also given part-time jobs to students and delivery riders. They’re planning to expand to other hill towns that face similar transport problems.
This kind of story is becoming common. More and more young Kashmiris are turning their frustrations into ideas. They are designing apps, building networks, and finding solutions to everyday problems that had once seemed too ordinary to solve.
For years, many graduates dreamed of only one thing: a secure government job. It promised stability in a place that rarely offered it. Now, a silent shift is underway. Students from engineering and business schools are beginning to see entrepreneurship as a path to empowerment.
That shift began with people like Sheikh Samiullah and Abid Rashid Lone, founders of Fast Beetle.
In 2019, they started delivering parcels across Srinagar on two scooters. Orders came slowly at first: a few boxes of dried apricots, some woollen shawls, and handmade soaps. The aim was to help local artisans and small businesses reach customers beyond the valley.
By 2021, the pandemic had hit, and suddenly everyone needed delivery services. Pharmacies, bakeries, and online stores began calling. Fast Beetle grew quickly. They built an app, hired riders, and now handle lakhs of parcels across Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2023, the duo appeared on Shark Tank India, becoming the first startup from Kashmir to do so. They secured ₹90 lakh in funding and national recognition. “We didn’t just go to represent our company,” Samiullah says. “We went to represent every Kashmiri who wants to dream beyond limits.”
The company now connects hundreds of home-run ventures, especially those led by women, to customers across India.
For many, it’s their first exposure to e-commerce. And local startups like Fast Beetle has become a bridge between isolation and opportunity.
In Shopian, known for its apple orchards, Ubair Shah faced a different challenge.
A third-generation grower, he saw farmers losing income every year due to poor storage and unfair pricing. So he created Efruit Mandi, a digital platform that helps farmers store, grade, and sell their produce directly to buyers.
Shah uses his phone to show how it works: farmers upload pictures of their apples, buyers place bids, and logistics partners handle delivery.
The app even provides weather updates and data on market trends. “We lose less and earn better now,” says one grower who joined the platform last year.
Shah believes innovation doesn’t have to uproot tradition. “Our heritage is farming,” he says. “Technology should protect it, not replace it.”
Efruit Mandi has helped hundreds of farmers reduce waste and reach national markets. In a place where agriculture employs most of the population, this kind of change has ripple effects: families stay financially stable, and younger people begin to see farming as a field with a future.
Kashmir’s startup wave may still be small, but it’s gaining structure. The Greenovator Incubation Foundation at NIT Srinagar and new government policies are supporting early-stage ventures with mentorship and grants. More than 650 startups are now registered in Jammu and Kashmir, working in fields from healthcare and tourism to agri-tech.
These ventures are teaching young people that progress can start small. They are also changing how Kashmiris see risk. “Our parents wanted us to be safe,” says Yameen of Curv. “We want to be useful.”
Still, the challenges are real. Funding is limited. Many investors remain hesitant to back businesses from the region. But the persistence of these founders tells a different story, one of resilience shaped by necessity.
The thread that connects these ventures is personal experience. None of these founders built a business from theory. They built it from life. They saw problems every day and decided to do something about them.
A traffic jam turned into an idea for sustainable mobility. A delayed delivery became a logistics solution. A rotting apple crate led to a digital mandi. Their stories reveal a kind of local wisdom, one that sees progress as an act of responsibility.
As evening falls over Srinagar, Yameen locks the last Curv bike at a dock near the Dal Lake. He looks at the reflection of lights in the water and smiles.
“People once told us innovation didn’t belong here,” he says. “Now they’re riding it.”
