IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad have emerged as the two standout campuses in the academic journey of India’s high-growth startup founders. While IIT Madras has the highest representation among undergraduate institutions, IIM Ahmedabad leads the postgraduate list, according to the 2026 ASK Private Wealth Hurun India Cheetah Index.
The index uses the term ‘Cheetah’ for an unlisted startup founded in 2000 or later, with a valuation between $200 million and $500 million, and considered likely to reach Unicorn status within five years. The index offers a glimpse into where India’s next generation of high-value startups is coming from — and where their founders studied before entering the entrepreneurial world.
IIT Madras has emerged as the most common undergraduate institution among founders in the 2026 cohort, with 13 founders having studied there.
IIT Bombay followed with 10 founders, while the University of Delhi had nine. The University of Mumbai, BITS Pilani, IIT Delhi and Anna University were next, with eight founders each.
The IIT Madras alumni featured in the cohort include Aditya Kumbakonam and Anuj Krishna of MathCo, and Kiran Naik of Vegrow, among others.
When it comes to postgraduate education, however, the picture changes.
IIM Ahmedabad tops the list, with seven founders in the cohort having studied there. The Indian School of Business follows with six, while IIM Lucknow has five.
IIT Madras, Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and IIM Calcutta have three founders each.
Among the founders who studied at IIM Ahmedabad are Amit Lakhotia of Park+, Devesh Joshi of RenewBuy and Sandeep Dalmia of Stanza Living.
Together, the two institutions tell an interesting story about the academic backgrounds of India’s emerging startup leaders. IIT Madras has the strongest representation at the undergraduate level, while IIM Ahmedabad leads among those who pursued postgraduate studies.
The educational background of founders is only one part of the larger story emerging from the index.
India had 110 Cheetahs in 2026, compared with 54 when the index began in 2021. That is more than double the number in five years.
The companies in this year’s cohort have a combined valuation of around Rs 3 lakh crore, with an average valuation of about Rs 2,820 crore. Together, they employ more than 1.10 lakh people.
The movement within the cohort also shows how quickly some of these businesses are scaling. Ten Cheetahs moved up to Gazelle status this year, while three moved directly to Unicorn status. Six others entered the public markets in 2026.
The sectors represented by these companies are also becoming more diverse.
FinTech remains the largest category, with 17 Cheetahs, followed by SaaS with 16 and e-commerce with 12. Electric vehicles, HealthTech and artificial intelligence have eight companies each.
At the same time, newer areas such as CleanTech and aerospace and defence are gaining ground. Both have five companies in the 2026 cohort.
Aerospace and defence has seen particularly strong growth, rising from just one Cheetah in 2023 to five in 2026.
The changing mix suggests that India’s startup story is no longer restricted to consumer apps, software and internet businesses. Entrepreneurs are increasingly building companies in areas such as space technology, mobility, clean energy, healthcare and AI.
Many of these sectors also require deep technical expertise, significant capital and longer development cycles, making the growing presence of such companies an important shift in the ecosystem.
Despite the geographical spread of the founders’ educational backgrounds, their companies remain concentrated in a few major startup hubs.
Bengaluru has the highest number of Cheetahs at 36, followed by the National Capital Region with 25 and Mumbai with 16. Together, the three centres account for 77 of the 110 companies, or around 70% of the cohort.
Pune has eight Cheetahs, while Chennai and Ahmedabad have four and three, respectively.
The concentration reflects the advantages offered by established startup ecosystems, including access to investors, technology talent and business networks. However, the map is gradually widening. Pune added four Cheetahs this year, Ahmedabad added two and Jaipur added one.
The growing presence of manufacturing, clean energy and defence businesses could further help Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities gain a larger role in India’s startup ecosystem.
The IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad numbers offer an interesting look at where many of these founders began, but their journeys after leaving these institutions are perhaps more significant.
The 110 companies span a wide range of industries, from financial technology and software to electric vehicles, healthcare and artificial intelligence. Several have already achieved significant scale.
Six companies in the cohort reported revenue of more than Rs 1,000 crore in FY2025, while another 26 recorded revenue between Rs 500 crore and Rs 1,000 crore.
River Mobility recorded the highest year-on-year revenue growth at 1,780%, followed by Scimplify at 1,016% and Rozana at 776%.
The movement of companies into higher valuation categories also shows how quickly some of these businesses are scaling. Skyroot Aerospace, Square Yards and Astrotalk moved directly to Unicorn status in 2026, while 10 others advanced to Gazelle status.
A prestigious college can provide a strong foundation, access to talent and valuable networks, but it cannot by itself create a successful company. The bigger test comes after graduation — in building a product, finding customers, raising capital and scaling the business.
For now, the 2026 data shows that IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad stand out as the two leading academic institutions in the educational journey of India’s rising startup founders — one leading at the undergraduate level and the other at the postgraduate stage.