Startups list in India: the official DPIIT data and how to use it

The quick answer

The only official startups list in India is the government's register of startups recognised by DPIIT, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. It had 2,12,283 entities on 31 January 2026 and crossed 2.23 lakh by 31 March 2026, according to two Ministry of Commerce releases. You can search it, one startup at a time or by state, sector and stage, on the Startup India portal. It gives names and categories, not phone numbers, so sellers who want to reach startups usually combine it with company records and a contact list such as Starleads' IT & Software Companies list (64,547 contacts across India on 28 October 2026).

This guide explains what "startup" means legally in India, how many there are and in which states, every place a list of startups in India can be found, what each one leaves out, and a step-by-step way to turn the official data into a prospect list you can actually call or email within TRAI's rules. It also says plainly where Starleads can help and where it can't: Starleads does not tag businesses as startups, and it does not sell lists of investors or other private individuals.

What counts as a startup in India

"Startup" has a legal meaning in India, set by DPIIT's notification G.S.R. 127(E). The Startup India recognition page (checked on 28 October 2026) sets out the conditions an entity must meet to be recognised:

Test	The rule, as Startup India states it	What it means for your list
Legal form	Private limited company, registered partnership firm or limited liability partnership (LLP)	No sole proprietors and no public limited companies. A shop or an agency run as a proprietorship is never on the list, however new or innovative.
Age	Up to 10 years from the date of incorporation	Companies drop out of the definition after ten years, even if they are still small and growing.
Size	Turnover below ₹100 crore in every previous financial year	Large, well-known names can be "startups" in the press but not in this register, and the reverse.
Purpose	Working towards innovation or improvement of products, services or processes, with potential to create jobs or wealth	The definition is not limited to technology companies.
Origin	Not formed by splitting up or reconstructing an existing business	A new subsidiary of an old group usually isn't a recognised startup.

Recognition is applied for through the National Single Window System (NSWS) using the form "Registration as a Startup". The same page warns that the Ministry has appointed no agents, charges no fee for the certificate, and says that charging a fee for recognition is illegal. If you sell services to new companies, keep that in mind: offering "DPIIT registration" as a paid shortcut is exactly what the government is warning founders about. Help with documents and pitch decks is a different matter.

Recognition opens two tax routes, which also tell you which startups are further along. A recognised private limited company or LLP incorporated after 1 April 2016 can apply for the Section 80-IAC exemption, a tax holiday for three consecutive financial years out of its first ten. Recognised startups can also apply for exemption under Section 56 of the Income Tax Act (the "angel tax" provision). The Startup India search lets you filter by "80IAC Exempted Startups", a narrower group that has gone through a further approval.

How many startups there are, and where

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry publishes the count through the Press Information Bureau. Two releases this year give the most recent official figures:

• The 17 March 2026 release (a Lok Sabha reply) says 2,12,283 entities had been recognised as startups by 31 January 2026, of which 1,02,054 had at least one woman director or partner. It adds an important detail for anyone building a list: according to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, 6,789 recognised startups were closed (dissolved or struck off).
• The 17 April 2026 release says more than 55,200 startups were recognised in the financial year 2025-26, the most in any single year since Startup India began on 16 January 2016, up 51.6% on 2024-25 (36,400+). The total crossed 2.23 lakh on 31 March 2026, with more than 23.36 lakh direct jobs reported, and startups are present in every state and union territory.

The April release also gives the ten states and union territories with the most recognised startups on 31 March 2026:

State / UT	Recognised startups	Direct jobs reported	Starleads' IT & software contacts in its biggest city there
Maharashtra	38,660+	4,13,900+	Mumbai 12,365; Pune 6,354
Karnataka	22,600+	2,46,000+	Bengaluru 11,814
Uttar Pradesh	21,960+	2,11,580+	see the city lists
Delhi	21,120+	2,36,640+	Delhi 8,940
Gujarat	19,270+	2,14,800+	Surat 2,098
Tamil Nadu	14,830+	1,52,900	see the city lists
Telangana	12,520+	1,36,570+	see the city lists
Haryana	11,620+	1,39,600+	see the city lists
Kerala	8,620+	74,130+	see the city lists
Rajasthan	8,100+	83,100+	Jaipur 2,527

The first three columns are the government's figures. The last column is Starleads' own: counts of IT and software businesses in Starleads' data for that city, taken from the list pages and the Starleads Insights figures on 28 October 2026. They are counts of contacts in Starleads' data, not an official census, and they count IT firms of every age, not only startups. They are there to show where a seller who targets young tech companies will find the most businesses to work through.

Three things stand out. Maharashtra has about 70% more recognised startups than Karnataka, so a "Bengaluru first" plan can miss the biggest market. Uttar Pradesh is third, just ahead of Delhi. And the five leading states hold over 1.2 lakh of the 2.23 lakh startups, so a seller with limited time can cover more than half the register by working five states well.

The April release adds two figures useful to sellers. More than 38,600 startups have been onboarded on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), so many startups sell to government buyers and need the tender paperwork, certifications and logistics that come with it. And funds backed by the government's Fund of Funds for Startups had invested more than ₹26,900 crore in over 1,420 startups by the end of 2025-26, while incubators under the Seed Fund Scheme had approved more than ₹605 crore for over 3,400 startups. Those are the startups with fresh money to spend.

Where to find a list of startups in India

A search for "startups list in India" returns a mix of rankings of famous companies, government and incubator directories, and community forums. Each answers a different question. This table compares the sources a business buyer can actually use:

Source	What it gives you	What it leaves out	Best for
Startup India portal search (DPIIT)	Recognised startups, with filters for DPIIT recognised, 80-IAC exempted, industry, sector, stage and state	Phone numbers and emails of the people who decide; bulk download	Checking whether a company is recognised; sizing a sector in a state
Ministry releases on PIB	Official totals, state-wise counts, scheme figures	Names of individual startups	Market sizing and slides
Ministry of Corporate Affairs company records	Legal name, CIN or LLPIN, date of incorporation, registered office, status (active, struck off)	Working phone numbers; whether the company is a startup	Weeding out closed companies; confirming the legal entity before you invoice
Incubator and accelerator portfolios (for example, university and state incubators)	Names of startups in one programme, often with a short description and website	Anyone outside that programme; contact people	Niche sectors such as deep tech, health or agritech
Rankings and "top startups" articles	A few dozen well-funded names	The other two lakh; most are written for job seekers and investors, not sellers	Reading about the ecosystem, not prospecting
Starleads lists	IT and software firms, web developers, digital agencies, CTOs and IT heads, CEOs and directors, by city, in Excel, with mobiles and emails where available	A "startup" tag: rows are not marked by age, funding or DPIIT status	Calling and emailing tech businesses at scale once you know which cities and trades to target

The point of the table is that no one source answers the whole question. The DPIIT register tells you who is a startup. Company records tell you who is still alive. A contact list tells you how to reach them. A good prospect list uses all three.

What Starleads' data holds for selling to startups and tech firms

Starleads sells ready-made Excel lists of businesses and professionals, compiled from business directories and similar sources and cleaned before sale. It has no list called "startups", because its records are not tagged by year of founding, funding or DPIIT recognition, and it would be dishonest to sell one. What it does have is a set of lists where young tech-led businesses and the people who run them are concentrated. These are the counts on the list pages on 28 October 2026:

• IT & Software Companies, All India: 64,547 contacts, 88% with a mobile number and 34% with an email address. The cities with the most are Mumbai (12,365), Bengaluru (11,814), Delhi (8,940), Pune (6,354) and Jaipur (2,527).
• CTOs & IT Heads, All India: 57,527 contacts, 76% with an email address and almost none with a mobile number. Despite the name, the sample rows show a mix of IT roles (network consultants, IT managers, project managers), so treat it as an IT-department email list rather than a list of chief technology officers only. The top cities are Mumbai (10,983), Bengaluru (8,351), Chennai (5,848), New Delhi (5,715) and Hyderabad (3,928).
• CEOs, MDs & Directors, All India: 36,173 contacts, 87% with a mobile number and 94% with an email address, most in Mumbai (7,229), Delhi (4,957), Bengaluru (3,271), Hyderabad (2,747) and Pune (2,385).
• Web Design, Development & Hosting, All India: 17,460 contacts, 98% with a mobile number and 54% with an email address, led by Delhi (2,840), Mumbai (2,256) and Bengaluru (1,509). Many small product and services startups start out in this trade.
• Digital Marketing & SEO Agencies, All India: 1,620 contacts, 92% with a mobile number.

Across all trades, Starleads holds 1,59,87,535 business and professional contacts in 201 industries, and its general business directory covers 56,62,886 businesses by state and city. A city, state or specialisation list costs ₹499; an All-India list of 10,000 or more contacts costs ₹1,999, with no GST added at checkout (prices on the About page, 28 October 2026). Every list page shows 60 real rows and lets you download them free first.

Live from the list page: the IT & Software Companies list now has 64,547 contacts, 88% with a mobile number and 34% with an email address. The biggest city lists are below.

• Mumbai 12,365 contacts · 28% email · 89% mobile ₹499
• Bengaluru 11,814 contacts · 30% email · 91% mobile ₹499
• Pune 6,354 contacts · 35% email · 91% mobile ₹499
• Jaipur 2,527 contacts · 28% email · 97% mobile ₹499
• Surat 2,098 contacts · 16% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Vadodara 1,848 contacts · 22% email · 96% mobile ₹499
• Chennai 1,747 contacts · 69% email · 46% mobile ₹499
• Hyderabad 1,517 contacts · 64% email · 58% mobile ₹499
• Noida 1,168 contacts · 37% email · 84% mobile ₹499
• Gurugram 1,095 contacts · 35% email · 81% mobile ₹499
• Ludhiana 949 contacts · 29% email · 98% mobile ₹499
• New Delhi 947 contacts · 72% email · 6% mobile ₹499

For more on the IT trade itself, see our list of IT and software companies in India; for reaching founders and directors, our CEO list guide.

How to build a startup prospect list, step by step

This is the method that turns the official data into a list your sales team can work, without buying anything you can't check.

1. Decide who you sell to. Write one line: sector, stage and place. For example, "early-traction fintech and SaaS startups in Maharashtra and Karnataka" for an accounting firm, or "health-tech startups in any state" for a medical device distributor. Stage matters more than sector for most sellers: an idea-stage team buys almost nothing, a startup that has just raised money buys hiring, office space, cloud, legal and marketing all at once.
2. Size the market on the Startup India portal. On the startup search, tick "DPIIT Recognised Startup", then pick industry, sector, stage and state. Note the count for each combination. If a combination has a few hundred startups, it can be worked by hand; if it has thousands, narrow it.
3. Pick your first 100 to 300 names. Copy the names, cities and websites of the startups that fit best into a sheet. Add the 80-IAC filter if you want only those further along. Keep a "source" column so you know where each row came from.
4. Check each company is alive. Look up the legal name or CIN in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs company records. Drop anything struck off or dissolved: by the government's own figure, 6,789 recognised startups had closed by January 2026. Note the date of incorporation, which also tells you how close the company is to the ten-year limit.
5. Find the right person. In a startup of under 50 people, the founder or a co-founder still buys most things. Above that, finance buys accounting and compliance, an HR or people lead buys hiring and benefits, and an engineering lead buys tools and cloud. Company websites, the founders' own public posts and job listings usually name them.
6. Add business contact details. Match your names against a city list, such as Starleads' IT & Software Companies in Bengaluru (11,814 contacts, 91% with a mobile number, 30% with an email address), or the CEOs and directors list. Download the free 60-row sample first and compare it with five companies you already know. If the match rate is poor for your sector, don't buy.
7. Clean before you send. Remove duplicates, check every number against the DND register if you plan promotional calls or SMS, and verify emails before a campaign. Our business email lists guide covers email verification and sending limits.
8. Load it into a CRM and work it in small batches. Twenty to fifty new contacts a day per salesperson is enough for real follow-up. Our CRM comparison lists tools with Indian pricing.

What startups buy, and when to call

Startups are good customers for some businesses and poor ones for others. They are short of time, move fast once convinced, and often have little patience for long sales cycles. The ones worth calling are those with a clear trigger:

• Just incorporated or just recognised. They need a chartered accountant, company secretary, GST registration, a bank account, trademarks, payroll set-up and a website. Many of these are bought in the first three months.
• Just funded. A seed round or a grant from an incubator brings hiring (recruiters, job boards, background checks), office space or co-working, laptops, cloud credits running out, and marketing. Funding announcements in the business press and on incubators' sites are the signal.
• Selling to government. With more than 38,600 startups on GeM, there is steady demand for help with bids, testing and certification, packaging and freight.
• Hiring in bulk. A startup advertising ten or more roles in one city needs staffing, HR software, insurance and often a bigger office.
• Near the ten-year mark or the ₹100 crore turnover limit. These companies are leaving the startup definition and start buying like ordinary mid-sized firms: audits, ERP, compliance software, larger premises.

What tends not to work: pitching paid "startup registration" (it is free and must be filed by the startup itself), long cold emails to founders about generic services, and calls in the last week of a quarter when founders are closing their own sales. Short, specific messages that name what the startup does and what you have done for similar firms get replies; our cold email templates for B2B sales give wording to start from.

The rules for calling, SMS and email

A startup is a business, but the number you call may be a founder's personal mobile, and India's telecom rules apply to the number, not the company. Before you call or text from a startups list:

• DND (NCPR). TRAI's customer preference registration page (checked on 28 October 2026) explains that any subscriber can block commercial communication fully or by category, including one for "Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT", and by mode, time band and day, through the 1909 helpline, an app or a web portal. Check numbers before any promotional call or SMS; our DND check guide shows how.
• DLT registration for SMS. TRAI's advice to senders page lists what a business must do under the TCCCPR 2018 regulations before sending bulk messages: register as a Principal Entity with a telecom operator, register headers (up to 11 characters), register content templates, register consent templates where needed, and collect consent. A message without these steps is not delivered.
• Consent. TRAI defines a promotional message or call as commercial communication for which the sender has not taken explicit consent. Service messages need consent or a registered template. A founder who fills in your enquiry form or replies to your email can give consent; a number from a list has not.
• Email. Send from your own authenticated domain, include a working unsubscribe link, honour every opt-out, and keep batches small. Founders receive a lot of cold email, and every spam complaint hurts your domain's delivery.
• Business only. Contact people in their business role and about their business. Starleads sells business and professional contacts only: no consumer lists, and no lists of investors, high-net-worth individuals or other people picked out by wealth or personal details. If you are looking for angel investors, use the government's investor programmes and SEBI-registered funds' own websites, not a contact list.

Where Starleads falls short for startup lists

Be clear about what you are buying. Starleads' lists are compiled from directories, and directories are better at established businesses with a listed phone number than at a three-person team that registered last month and works from a co-working desk. That means:

• The newest startups are under-represented. For companies under a year old, the Startup India portal and incubator portfolios are better sources of names.
• Rows carry a category (software development, hardware, telecom and so on), not a founding year, funding stage or DPIIT status, so you can't filter Starleads' data down to "startups" directly.
• Contact details change. Each list page shows how many rows have a mobile, an email or a contact person, and 60 sample rows, so check those before you pay rather than assume.
• Some lists are email-heavy and some phone-heavy: the CTOs and IT heads list has emails for 76% of rows but almost no mobiles; the CEOs and directors list has both for most rows.

Where Starleads helps is the step after you know your targets: getting phone numbers and emails for tech firms, agencies and directors in the cities where startups cluster, in one Excel file, at ₹499 a city. If a list you need is missing, the list builder lets you combine up to ten industries across chosen cities.

Questions people ask

How many startups are there in India?

By the government's count, more than 2.23 lakh entities had been recognised as startups by DPIIT on 31 March 2026, after a record 55,200+ in the year 2025-26. That counts only companies, LLPs and partnerships that applied and met the definition; many young businesses never apply, and 6,789 recognised startups had closed by January 2026, so the number trading today is different.

Is there an official startups list in India PDF or Excel?

The Startup India portal lets you search and filter recognised startups online; the Ministry publishes totals and state-wise counts in its PIB releases. Neither is a contact book with phone numbers. PDFs of "top 100 startups" circulating online are rankings made by publishers, not the official register, and they go out of date quickly.

How do I check whether a startup is DPIIT recognised?

Search its name on the Startup India portal with the "DPIIT Recognised Startup" filter ticked, or ask the company for its DPIIT certificate of recognition, which it receives after applying through NSWS. Recognition is free; nobody can sell it to the company.

Which state has the most startups in India?

Maharashtra, with 38,660+ recognised startups on 31 March 2026, followed by Karnataka (22,600+), Uttar Pradesh (21,960+), Delhi (21,120+) and Gujarat (19,270+), according to the Ministry of Commerce release of 17 April 2026.

Where can I find the top 10 startups in India?

Rankings depend on what is measured (funding, valuation, revenue or jobs), so every publisher's top 10 differs, and the government does not publish one. For selling, a top-10 list is of little use: the famous names have procurement teams and approved vendors. The tens of thousands of smaller recognised startups in the table above are where a new supplier gets a hearing.

Can I get founders' phone numbers?

Founders who list their business publicly, on their website, in directories or on a list such as Starleads' CEOs and directors list, can be contacted about business matters. Treat the number as a business contact: check DND before promotional calls, introduce yourself by email first, and stop if they ask. Don't buy lists of founders' personal or family details; Starleads doesn't sell them.

Does Starleads sell a startups list?

No. Starleads doesn't tag records as startups and won't sell a list under that name. It sells lists of IT and software companies, web developers, digital agencies, IT heads and company directors by city and state, which is where most tech startups and their decision makers appear. Download the free 60 rows of any list to see whether it fits your target before buying.