Geographic Hotbeds
Where Deeptech Clusters in India
Figures rebuilt 09 Nov 2026Methodology
Two lenses on the same country. Where patents are filed - mapped from the filing address across every domestic filer, filterable by technology and split so heavy-filing colleges don’t drown the corporate signal - and where India's startups we track are based.
Why this page exists - and how to read it
Innovation and commercialisation happen in different places. The filing map shows where patents are actually produced - every domestic filer, located from the address on the record - while the startup map shows where ventures incorporate. Reading the two together tells you where capability exists, and where it has (or hasn't yet) turned into companies.
- Investors
- Look for dense-but-quiet states: heavy filing with few mapped startups often means capability that hasn't been commercialised yet.
- Founders & operators
- The company-only city list is a proxy for experienced R&D talent - use it to decide where to hire or set up.
- Corporate & R&D
- Filter the map by your technology to see which states drive its filings - and whether companies or colleges are behind them.
- Policy & TTO
- The Institutes toggle separates academic output from corporate output, state by state and city by city.
💬 Switch the filer-kind toggle before reading the map - several states look completely different once colleges are split out.
Where patents are filed - by technology
Domestic filers mapped by the address on the patent record
Pick a technology, then use the toggle to separate companies from university/college institutes (which file heavily) and individual inventors. Tap any state on the map to drill into the cities driving it - a read on where the talent sits.
Leading states
17 - 53,685 filings per state
2,38,465 domestic filings mapped. Tap a state to see its cities.
What this map covers
- Patents in our data4,99,487
- With an Indian applicant2,55,67551%
- Placed in a state2,38,46593% of those
- Placed in a named city1,50,25663% of mapped
Not on the map: 2,15,583 patents filed only by applicants outside India; 28,229 with no applicant record in our data; 17,210 with an Indian applicant whose address we could not read to a state.
A technology's map counts a filing when its technology tag names that technology, or uses a wording we have mapped to it (76,704 filings): 1,01,838 of 4,78,389 tagged patents (21%) today. Wordings seen only once are not mapped yet, so a technology's map shows part of its filings, not all of them.
Where the talent is - top cities
- 1Chennai · Tamil Nadu26,986
- 2Delhi · Delhi22,554
- 3Bengaluru · Karnataka19,244
- 4Hyderabad · Telangana9,941
- 5Pune · Maharashtra9,382
- 6Coimbatore · Tamil Nadu8,869
- 7Mumbai · Maharashtra8,586
- 8Noida · Uttar Pradesh8,027
- 9Chandigarh · Chandigarh7,898
- 10Jaipur · Rajasthan5,306
- 11Vellore · Tamil Nadu3,217
- 12Ahmedabad · Gujarat2,969
Cities are read from the filing address; 63% of the filings mapped here name a recognisable city, so city counts are a lower bound on each state’s total.
Location is derived from the filing address and is approximate (93% of filings with an Indian applicant resolve to a state, 59% to a named city); counts are distinct applications with an Indian applicant. The number after each technology is how many of its filings the map can place. Methodology.
Startups by geography
The whole startup registry we track, by state and by city. For the Deeptech subset - its state map and the tier-2 cities rising beyond the metros - see the Deeptech startup map.
All startups by state
Every startup we track - tap a state to open it in the explorer
Leading states
- 1Maharashtra75,282
- 2Uttar Pradesh46,365
- 3Delhi44,557
- 4Karnataka42,880
- 5Gujarat35,318
- 6Tamil Nadu30,428
15 - 75,282 startups per state
Leading cities - most registrations
By city across the whole registry, metros included. For the Deeptech tier-2 cities, see the Deeptech startup map.
- 1.Delhi NCR · Delhi74,928
- 2.Bengaluru · Karnataka35,122
- 3.Mumbai · Maharashtra32,718
- 4.Hyderabad · Telangana21,122
- 5.Pune · Maharashtra20,118
- 6.Chennai · Tamil Nadu15,920
- 7.Ahmedabad · Gujarat15,260
- 8.Kolkata · West Bengal11,482
- 9.Jaipur · Rajasthan8,594
- 10.Lucknow · Uttar Pradesh7,736
- 11.Surat · Gujarat5,261
- 12.Indore · Madhya Pradesh5,195
Family offices by geography
261 family offices that invest in startups. 11 of them back a company we call Deeptech, and 41 more may, by a brand-name match we have not confirmed. Members can search them by sector, stage and the companies they back.
Family offices by state
By headquarters - tap a state to search its family offices (members)
Leading states
- 1Maharashtra66
- 2Delhi46
- 3Karnataka27
- 4Gujarat9
- 5Tamil Nadu6
- 6Telangana5
1 - 66 family offices per state
Cities
- 1.Mumbai · Maharashtra62
- 2.Delhi NCR · Delhi46
- 3.Bengaluru · Karnataka26
- 4.Ahmedabad · Gujarat9
- 5.Chennai · Tamil Nadu6
- 6.Hyderabad · Telangana5
- 7.Kolkata · West Bengal5
- 8.Pune · Maharashtra3
Outside India
70 family offices based abroad also back Indian startups, led by Singapore (10), New York (9), Dubai (6).
20 have no headquarters on record.
Search family offices →Delhi NCR offices are placed in Delhi. Backing Deeptech means a company it is known for is one we call Deeptech, matched by registered name or a funding round. A match on a trading brand alone is counted apart, as possible. Family offices are listed from Inc42's Family Office Tracker (April 2026) and from funding rounds and news reports, each with the source it came from.