I researched and mapped the landscape of Indian data platforms, covering civic reporting, open data communities, and geospatial startups. This list details founding teams, business models, and financial health for key players like IndiaSpend, SatSure, and CivicDataLab.
I Paid a Bribe (2010)
Founded by: Janaagraha (co-founded by Swati Ramanathan & Ramesh Ramanathan) (Tracxn)
Status: Ongoing as a Janaagraha initiative (current activity of the specific site varies by city/campaign; Janaagraha remains active) (janaagraha.org)
Offering: Civic reporting + advocacy platform; sustained via donations/grants through Janaagraha (janaagraha.org)
Financials: Janaagraha’s audited statement shows total income ₹243.46M (₹24.35 cr) for FY ending Mar 31, 2024 (janaagraha.org); FCRA statement shows donation income ₹174.38M (FY ending Mar 31, 2024) (janaagraha.org) (org-level, not IPaB-only)
Founded by: Prukalpa Sankar and Varun Banka. (Forbes India)
Status: No longer operating as the original “projects” startup; continued as a “data for social good community” while the team shifted focus to Atlan. (Forbes India)
Offering: Earlier: data-intelligence projects + internal tools; later opened up tools for data teams and pointed users to Atlan. (Forbes India)
Financials: Tracxn lists total funding of $320K (seed, Jul 30, 2014). (Tracxn)
Founded by: Avinash Singh, N S Ramnath, John Samuel Raja Duraipandy (Tracxn profile); HIL’s own team page also lists Avinash Singh + Avinash Celestine as “Co-founder”. (Tracxn)
Status: Active (site is live; products like “Gram” and “Sales Pulse” are being offered). (howindialives.com)
Offering: Public-data products (e.g., Gram, Sales Pulse) + consulting/services around identifying/extracting/analyzing/visualising public data. (howindialives.com)
Financials: Tracxn lists annual revenue of ₹1.92 Cr (as on Mar 31, 2022); Sales Pulse lists pricing at ₹35,400/quarter and ₹1,18,000/year (incl. taxes). (Tracxn)
Data.gov.in / OGD Platform India (launched 2012)
Founded by: Government of India (built/hosted by NIC, MeitY) (Data.gov.in)
Status: Active dataset used widely in research (The India Forum)
Offering: Subscription access to microdata for institutions/researchers (The India Forum)
Financials: One public datapoint on pricing: “membership subscription fee … $25,000 for one year” (example cited) (The India Forum) (CMIE’s own full financials may not be openly published like listed companies)
Offering: Non-profit fact-checking; runs under Pravda Media Foundation (Section 8 company); funded via donations + grants. (Alt News)
Financials: Alt News discloses at least ₹3,00,000 received in FY2017–18 from Zindabad Trust; Tracxn lists Pravda Media Foundation revenue ~₹2.18 Cr (FY ending Mar 31, 2025) (entity operating Alt News). (Alt News)
Founded by: A programme of the Oorvani Foundation, in collaboration with DataMeet. (re3data.org)
Status: Active (Urban Data Portal continues to host datasets). (re3data.org)
Offering: Open urban data portal consolidating city datasets for planners/researchers/citizens; civic-tech transparency + evidence-based governance use. (re3data.org)
Financials: No venture-level financials publicly stated in the repository description; best understood as a nonprofit programme/civic-tech initiative. (re3data.org)
Offering: AI-driven external-data intelligence for fraud/risk/compliance (RegTech), used by banks/NBFCs/fintechs. (YourStory.com)
Financials: Raised $9M Series A (May 22, 2025) (mix of primary/secondary). Valuation is not disclosed publicly (some outlets report an estimated range, but the company hasn’t confirmed it). (YourStory.com)
Offering: Public data access + analytics/visualization tools (tax-funded) (Press Information Bureau)
Financials: Not a commercial venture; no revenue (government platform) (Press Information Bureau)
Factly (2014–2016)
Founded by: Founded/led by Rakesh Dubbudu (origin story: started as a blog in 2014; later became Factly; fact-checking arm recognised as launched in early 2016) (factlylabs.com)
Offering: Mix of fact-checking, data journalism, and partnerships; IFCN listing describes the organisation and its work (ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org)
Financials: Precise revenues aren’t reliably public in one canonical place; third-party “revenue estimate” sites are inconsistent, so I’m not treating them as verified financials (FACTLY)
BOOM (BoomLive) (2014; current avatar since 2016)
Founded by: Operated by Outcue Media Pvt Ltd; BOOM describes itself as India’s first fact-checking initiative (current avatar since Nov 2016) (BOOM)
Founded by: Avinash Singh, N S Ramnath, John Samuel Raja Duraipandy (Tracxn profile); HIL’s own team page also lists Avinash Singh + Avinash Celestine as “Co-founder”. (Tracxn)
Status: Active (site is live; products like “Gram” and “Sales Pulse” are being offered). (howindialives.com)
Offering: Public-data products (e.g., Gram, Sales Pulse) + consulting/services around identifying/extracting/analyzing/visualising public data. (howindialives.com)
Financials: Tracxn lists annual revenue of ₹1.92 Cr (as on Mar 31, 2022); Sales Pulse lists pricing at ₹35,400/quarter and ₹1,18,000/year (incl. taxes). (Tracxn)
Founded by: Prukalpa Sankar and Varun Banka. (Forbes India)
Status: No longer operating as the original “projects” startup; continued as a “data for social good community” while the team shifted focus to Atlan. (Forbes India)
Offering: Earlier: data-intelligence projects + internal tools; later opened up tools for data teams and pointed users to Atlan. (Forbes India)
Financials: Tracxn lists total funding of $320K (seed, Jul 30, 2014). (Tracxn)
Offering: Non-profit fact-checking; runs under Pravda Media Foundation (Section 8 company); funded via donations + grants. (Alt News)
Financials: Alt News discloses at least ₹3,00,000 received in FY2017–18 from Zindabad Trust; Tracxn lists Pravda Media Foundation revenue ~₹2.18 Cr (FY ending Mar 31, 2025) (entity operating Alt News). (Alt News)
Founded by: A programme of the Oorvani Foundation, in collaboration with DataMeet. (re3data.org)
Status: Active (Urban Data Portal continues to host datasets). (re3data.org)
Offering: Open urban data portal consolidating city datasets for planners/researchers/citizens; civic-tech transparency + evidence-based governance use. (re3data.org)
Financials: No venture-level financials publicly stated in the repository description; best understood as a nonprofit programme/civic-tech initiative. (re3data.org)
Offering: AI-driven external-data intelligence for fraud/risk/compliance (RegTech), used by banks/NBFCs/fintechs. (YourStory.com)
Financials: Raised $9M Series A (May 22, 2025) (mix of primary/secondary). Valuation is not disclosed publicly (some outlets report an estimated range, but the company hasn’t confirmed it). (YourStory.com)