10 years of startup India: PM leads celebrations
Young startup founders participating in the event credited Modi for the rapid growth of India’s startup ecosystem, stating that his vision of making India a “startup nation” has transformed the entrepreneurial landscape of the country
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the celebrations as the Startup India programme completes 10 years.
"This is a day to acknowledge the ecosystem of mentors, incubators, investors, academic institutions and others who support startups. Their support and insights go a long way in encouraging our youth as they innovate and contribute to growth," the PM said as he inaugurated a Startup India exhibition at Bharat Mandapam here.
Young startup founders participating in the event credited Modi for the rapid growth of India’s startup ecosystem, stating that his vision of making India a “startup nation” has transformed the entrepreneurial landscape of the country.
Releasing video statements on the occasion, they noted that under Modi’s leadership, India has emerged as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, providing unprecedented opportunities for innovation, investment, and job creation. Sharing their own success stories, the young entrepreneurs said that government initiatives such as Startup India, Digital India, and ease-of-doing-business reforms have encouraged thousands of youths to turn their ideas into successful ventures. They highlighted improved access to funding, mentorship, and digital infrastructure as key factors behind their growth.
The founders urged young people to take full advantage of these initiatives and shift their mindset from being job seekers to becoming job creators.
They further expressed confidence that with continued policy support and active youth participation, India’s startup ecosystem would play a crucial role in making the country a global hub for entrepreneurship and innovation.
According to a government statement, by 2025, India ranked among the world’s most active IPO markets. In 2014, the country had just four unicorns. Today, India counts around 120-125 active unicorns, with a combined valuation exceeding US$ 350 billion, placing it behind only the United States and China.
Capital recycling and repeat entrepreneurship have become structurally viable. Startup India was not a collection of incentives layered onto a weak system; it was a structural correction. By repairing the first mile of innovation, stabilising scale finance, reducing regulatory uncertainty, opening markets, and legitimising exits, India rebuilt the foundations of entrepreneurship itself. Startup India was launched in 2016 with the objective of not just creating isolated success stories but also redesigning the full startup lifecycle. The transformation that followed is best understood by examining how five long-standing barriers were systematically dismantled, using policy, capital, and regulatory reform grounded in evidence rather than aspiration. Before 2016, India’s startup ecosystem was constrained at the idea stage due to the absence of a national seed-funding framework. Early-stage innovation struggled to secure institutional backing, with the World Bank’s 2014 Enterprise Innovation Survey identifying a lack of early financing as the main barrier for young firms. Structured angel investment was limited—fewer than 300 startups annually—concentrated in just three cities, leaving innovation dependent on personal wealth and geography rather than merit. Startup India addressed first-mile funding gaps through the Seed Fund Scheme, launched in 2021 with a Rs 945 crore corpus to support early-stage activities. By 2025, 219 incubators nationwide were approved to deploy the fund, ensuring broad sectoral and regional coverage. Scale financing was restructured by using public funds to anchor private investment. A Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds for Startups, managed by SIDBI, channeled over Rs 11,800 crore of government commitments through 150+ AIFs, which together invested Rs 22,900 crore in more than 1,270 startups.
