We checked our own homework against the government's
The Startup India API returns facet counts computed over the entire register on every search response. That gives us a number we did not produce to reconcile against. Almost nobody in this category publishes an accuracy claim that could be falsified. Here is ours, and the methodology explains how each side of it was counted.
What you can get
Four ways the register leaves this site, from the free counts to a licence for the whole thing. Every count is from the August 2026 snapshot.
| What | What it is | What it costs | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every count on this site | 712 district pages, 36 states, 56 industries, every pincode and every company page, with the snapshot month on each. | Free, with attribution | The licence |
| The reports | 241 designed PDF reports from the same register: 153 districts, 36 states, 51 industries and India. Lucknow is open in full. | ₹249 each, or ₹749 a year for all | The reports |
| The rows, and the file | Explore on the research portal: the count for any filter is free, the first 25 rows with website and CIN on a free account, 200 per search on Library, every row and a CSV or XLSX export on Pro (5,000 rows a file, 50,000 a month, never the address line). | Free to ₹2,249 a year | Open Explore |
| The full set, older snapshots, a feed | Licensed by conversation for your own systems: one email with what you are building. No price is printed, because the answer depends on it. | By conversation | trust@indianstartupmap.com |
Our count against the government's, by state
| State | Our count | Government census | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maharashtra | 74,540 | 77,910 | -3,370 -4.3% |
| Uttar Pradesh | 45,182 | 47,995 | -2,813 -5.9% |
| Delhi | 44,515 | 45,720 | -1,205 -2.6% |
| Karnataka | 41,489 | 43,862 | -2,373 -5.4% |
| Gujarat | 35,173 | 36,737 | -1,564 -4.3% |
| Tamil Nadu | 30,009 | 31,422 | -1,413 -4.5% |
| Telangana | 23,436 | 24,537 | -1,101 -4.5% |
| Haryana | 20,941 | 22,336 | -1,395 -6.2% |
| West Bengal | 17,397 | 17,991 | -594 -3.3% |
| Rajasthan | 19,847 | 17,324 | +2,523 14.6% |
| Madhya Pradesh | 16,261 | 17,093 | -832 -4.9% |
| Kerala | 15,697 | 15,878 | -181 -1.1% |
| Bihar | 10,639 | 10,993 | -354 -3.2% |
| Andhra Pradesh | 9,774 | 10,042 | -268 -2.7% |
| Odisha | 7,535 | 7,775 | -240 -3.1% |
| Punjab | 6,143 | 6,513 | -370 -5.7% |
| Assam | 5,084 | 5,345 | -261 -4.9% |
| Jharkhand | 5,045 | 5,244 | -199 -3.8% |
| Chhattisgarh | 4,699 | 4,885 | -186 -3.8% |
| Uttarakhand | 4,370 | 4,568 | -198 -4.3% |
| Total, top 20 | 4,37,776 | 4,54,170 | -3.6% |
A gap is expected and is not an error in either number. Ours counts resolved companies after merging duplicate profiles, the government's counts profiles, and we exclude startups we may not republish. What matters is that the gap is small and that we print it. Each of the 36 state pages repeats this comparison for its own state, and the 712 district pages break the same counts down further.
When these companies were incorporated
Real incorporation dates from Ministry of Corporate Affairs startups, for the 2,88,406 of 4,53,192 startups where we hold a matched incorporation year inside this range. This is not the same as when they registered on the Startup India portal, the difference is explained in the methodology, and it is not a picture of company formation nationally, only of the startups we have matched so far.
The 27 years as a table
| Incorporated | Companies |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 37 |
| 2001 | 23 |
| 2002 | 25 |
| 2003 | 46 |
| 2004 | 39 |
| 2005 | 75 |
| 2006 | 91 |
| 2007 | 116 |
| 2008 | 193 |
| 2009 | 218 |
| 2010 | 502 |
| 2011 | 989 |
| 2012 | 1,613 |
| 2013 | 2,325 |
| 2014 | 3,100 |
| 2015 | 5,679 |
| 2016 | 9,896 |
| 2017 | 14,988 |
| 2018 | 16,377 |
| 2019 | 19,985 |
| 2020 | 26,215 |
| 2021 | 30,823 |
| 2022 | 30,821 |
| 2023 | 31,636 |
| 2024 | 32,226 |
| 2025 | 42,319 |
| 2026 | 18,049 |
| Total | 2,88,406 |
Stage mix, nationally
Government census figures over the whole register, which is why they add up to more than our 4,53,192, for the reasons under the table above. Stage is self-declared, and it is one of the few fields we hold for effectively every startup.
- Prototype 1,71,058
- Validation 1,33,607
- Early traction 1,04,330
- Scaling 50,038
Want the whole thing
The full register, older snapshots, or a feed.
A report is one place or one industry, and Explore is capped by plan. If you need every row in one file, the months before this snapshot, a monthly delivery, or a cut built to your own definition, that is a different arrangement and it is priced by conversation. Tell us what you need and what you will do with it, and we will tell you the price.
Talk to ustrust@indianstartupmap.com