Over 1,100 Active Incubators Empowering Startup Ecosystem

New Delhi: There are more than 1,100 active incubators nurturing startups in the Indian ecosystem, according to a new report on Friday.

The joint research report, ‘India Incubator Kaleidoscope 2024’ was released by NSRCEL, the startup incubator at IIM Bangalore, and the Centre for Research on Start-ups and Risk Financing (CREST) IIT Madras in Bengaluru.

It showed that the number of incubators in the Indian ecosystem has grown steadily, with Tier I cities housing almost half of all incubators (48 per cent). Chennai leads with a high proportion of academic incubators (82 per cent), whereas Bengaluru and Gurugram have a high proportion of industry incubators at 71 per cent and 84 per cent respectively.

The incubator density in India is 0.8 incubators per million population, whereas countries like the US, UK, and China range between 8 and 10 incubators per million population, said the report noting that indicates the need for setting up more incubators in the country, said the report.

“In the growth of the Indian startup ecosystem, incubators play a very crucial role, and their contribution has been expanding in recent years. Conceptualised initially to facilitate the formation of start-ups, today incubators perform multiple roles such as bringing together scientific and business expertise, channelising capital to promising start-ups, and increasing awareness of startups in the society,” said Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, and ex-CEO, NITI Aayog, while launching the report.