IIT-Madras Launches ‘Startups for All’ to Open Up India’s Startup Data Landscape

Indian Institute of Technology Madras’ Centre for Research on Start-ups and Risk Financing (CREST) has launched a new initiative called ‘Startups for All’ to help founders, entrepreneurs and anyone linked to the country’s fast-growing startup world. Built with YNOS, an IIT Madras–incubated company, the effort marks a major push to make startup information open, accessible and useful for all.

Reaching beyond founders and investors
The initiative is designed not only for founders, investors, mentors and incubators but also for students, jobseekers, consumers, corporates and service providers. The idea is simple: the startup economy now touches nearly every part of society, and access to reliable information should match that reach.

The project was officially launched by Dr. Palanivel Thiagarajan, Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services, Government of Tamil Nadu, during the TN Global Startup Summit.

A growing ecosystem with scattered information
India’s startup ecosystem is now the third largest in the world and is expected to play a key role in the Nation’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision and its $5 trillion economic target. As startups enter the mainstream, their connection with society keeps deepening. But one major problem has held the sector back — scattered, incomplete and confusing information.

Many founders and stakeholders feel that information is available everywhere, yet what truly matters is hard to find, difficult to verify or locked away. This has slowed decision-making and limited growth, especially for newcomers.

A single platform to solve the information gap
To tackle this, IIT Madras CREST and YNOS have created India’s only independent digital platform dedicated to startup information. It is now the largest database of its kind in the country, covering startups, investors, incubators and support agencies.

Prof. Thillai Rajan A., Head of CREST, said the aim is to break the barriers created by information asymmetry. He explained that the platform gives every founder — and every citizen — equal access to the data they need to make smart, confident decisions. He added that access to information should never be a privilege.

India’s largest startup dataset
The platform currently lists more than 2.75 lakh startups, 15,000 angel investors, 5,500 venture capital firms, 1,400 incubators, 800 banks and 110 government schemes. The platform also offers investor recommendations, comparative analytics, downloadable reports and tools for personalised outreach to investors and incubators.

These features are expected to help founders who often struggle with limited resources and little clarity about funding landscapes, investor interests or past investment patterns.

Free access and micro-payments to support early users
A key feature of ‘Startups for All’ is cost-free initial access. Registered users receive free credits that allow them to explore startups, investors, VCs, incubators, banks and government schemes. Once the credits are used up, users can continue through a pay-as-you-go model instead of buying heavy subscription plans.

This makes the platform especially useful for students, researchers, faculty, first-time founders and innovators from smaller towns and institutions. With verified data and easy access, the platform hopes to give them a strong starting point as they build their ideas and careers.

If the initiative succeeds, India may finally have a unified, reliable and easy-to-use information backbone to support the next wave of startup growth.