Cite this dataset

Take the numbers. We would rather be quoted than protected. There is one condition that is not politeness but accuracy: a figure from this site travels with its snapshot, which is 2026-08 for everything you are reading today.

The citation

In running prose, this is enough: Indian Startup Map (Apexlayer Technologies), snapshot 2026-08. https://indianstartupmap.com

BibTeX

@misc{indianstartupmap_2026_08,
  author       = {{Apexlayer Technologies}},
  title        = {{Indian Startup Map: the Indian startup register}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://indianstartupmap.com}},
  note         = {Snapshot 2026-08. 453192 startups. Derived from Startup India (DPIIT) and state startup portal open data.}
}

Quote the snapshot, always

This is not a live feed. It is a sweep of the register taken at a point in time and published as a dated set: 2026-08, 4,53,192 startups. The next sweep will move almost every number on the site, because the register itself moves and because our matching improves.

So "4,53,192 startups are registered in India" is a claim that will be wrong within months, and "4,53,192 startups were on the register in the 2026-08 snapshot" stays true forever. Write the second one. This is also why no access date appears in the citation above: the snapshot pins the figure far more precisely than the day you happened to read it. Add an access date as well if your style guide requires one.

Citing one page, not the dataset

If you are quoting a city, a state, an industry or the Seed Fund ledger, cite that page rather than the home page, and give its URL. A reader who can reach the exact page can check your number against the same arithmetic you saw, which is the entire reason the per-page figures are computed in the open. The reconciliation against the government's own counts lives on the data page, and the sources behind any given figure are listed on the sources page.

Credit the original publisher too

The underlying startups are published by the Government of India through the Startup India portal and by state startup portals. Attribution to the original publisher is a condition of the open licences we rely on, it is preserved on every startup here, and it should survive into your citation. We are the publisher of the compilation, not of the register.

Two things must not be attributed to us: any statement about whether a named company is trading, funded or worth your money, and any figure we did not print. What we hold, and the far longer list of what we do not, is set out in the methodology. The reuse terms themselves are on the licence page, and bulk access for research or journalism starts with an email to trust@indianstartupmap.com.