India-born entrepreneurs are playing a major role in a surge of new businesses across western and north-western Sydney, with recent data showing they founded more than half of all new companies in parts of the region last year.

Figures from the Lawpath New Business Index reveal that migrants from India accounted for 19 per cent of all new business registrations in New South Wales in 2025, making them the second most common group of founders after Australian-born entrepreneurs. The share is significantly higher than their proportion of the state’s population, with India-born residents representing about 3 per cent of people living in NSW.

The impact is even more pronounced in western Sydney. Across the council areas of Parramatta, Blacktown, The Hills and Penrith, India-born founders accounted for 56 per cent of new businesses registered in 2025. Australian-born founders were the next largest group, representing 16 per cent.

The pattern is reflected in the most common surnames appearing on new business registrations across those local government areas. Names such as Singh, Patel, Kaur and Sharma ranked among the most frequent, while Smith, traditionally one of Australia’s most common surnames, appeared much further down the list.

The data highlights the growing economic influence of Australia’s Indian diaspora, which has expanded rapidly over the past two decades and now numbers about one million people nationally.

One of the entrepreneurs contributing to the trend is Pragna Bhavsar, who co-owns catering business Chit Chaat Co with her husband Sahil. The company, based in Westmead near Parramatta, specialises in modern Indian fusion cuisine and caters to both corporate and private events.

Bhavsar, 28, left her job in human resources around a year ago to run the business full-time. She told SMH her company now caters between five and 10 events each week, with gatherings ranging from small functions to large celebrations.

“We saw an opportunity to expand our business by having a presence in western Sydney,” Bhavsar said, noting the area’s rapidly growing South Asian community.

Bhavsar moved to Australia with her parents in 2011 and said strong community networks among migrants had been valuable for small business owners.

“It’s like you’re all growing together,” she said.

Lawpath co-founder Tom Willis said the high proportion of India-born founders in western and north-western Sydney was a clear sign of strong entrepreneurial activity within the diaspora.

Willis said Indian Australian entrepreneurs were launching companies across a broad range of industries, including hospitality, food services, professional consulting, web-based businesses and digital marketing.

“They’re responding to where they see opportunities, and sometimes that’s servicing the diaspora communities they’re part of,” he said.

Parramatta and the surrounding suburbs have become key centres for the Indian-Australian community. More than one-third of residents in Parramatta were born in India, while other suburbs such as Schofields, The Ponds and Marsden Park also have large India-born populations.

Jai Patel, who leads KPMG’s India Business Practice, told SMH that strong social connections within the diaspora had helped create a supportive environment for entrepreneurs.

“A high-energy business ecosystem has emerged among the Indian diaspora driven by deep social connections and entrepreneurial spirit,” Patel said.

He said starting a business can also be a pathway for new migrants seeking to establish themselves in Australia’s labour market.

“Cracking that first job without Australian experience can be difficult, so for many creating a new business can be a better way to go,” he said.

Patel added that the growing number of Indian Australian-founded businesses in western Sydney was also strengthening trade and investment links between Australia and India, the world’s fifth-largest economy.

“The diaspora naturally provides a human bridge into the vast Indian market across multiple sectors,” he said.

The rise in Indian-Australian-led businesses forms part of a broader increase in entrepreneurial activity across Western Sydney.

In the Parramatta local government area, nearly 30,000 new businesses were registered in 2025, representing a 35 per cent increase on the previous year. Growth was even stronger in Blacktown, where 21,674 new businesses were registered, up 48 per cent compared with 2024.

Nationally, the Lawpath index shows strong growth in new company registrations over the past two years.

Willis said economic pressures, including cost-of-living increases, higher interest rates and modest wage growth, were encouraging more Australians to pursue entrepreneurship as a way to boost household income.

“In a period marked by cost-of-living pressures and slower wage growth, many Australians are turning to business activity to create income flexibility,” he said.

The trend suggests that western Sydney, powered in part by its rapidly expanding migrant communities, is emerging as one of the country’s most dynamic hubs for small business growth.

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