Number of recognized startups 2016-2024

As of April 2024, over 127 thousand startups had been officially recognized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). India’s startup economy has been growing since 2016 with businesses mushrooming rapidly across the country. To support and sustain its growth, the Indian government launched the Startup India initiative. As of February 2023, a total of 92,683 startups had been officially recognized by DPIIT.

Business environment in India

India’s economy comprises of a vast number of businesses that are predominantly micro enterprises, with more than half of them based in rural areas. The Indian government defines a startup as an entity less than ten years old with an annual turnover under one billion Indian rupees and headquartered in India. Owing to a host of funding deals and investment schemes, startups in India have spread across several key sectors primarily those of technology and ecommerce.

Leading startup sectors and unicorns

E-commerce, enterprise tech, and fintech remained the top-performing sectors in 2023. However, all these sectors saw a significant drop in funding compared to the previous year. The bright spot in the year was deeptech which received increased investor interest with more funding deals than the preceding year.