Article · 12 min read

Types of Businesses (Sole Proprietorship, LLP, Private Limited, OPC)

Startup India (DPIIT) · Startup India Free Beginner India

This is the government's own comparison, and it leads with the exact filter you need: if you are raising funding, the decision is made for you (Private Limited), and everything else is secondary. It covers all five real Indian structures including OPC for solo founders who want liability protection without co-founders, so you can match your actual situation instead of a generic template.

• Only a Private Limited company can take external equity, so investors decide your structure before anything else does
• A sole proprietorship gives you zero liability protection; an OPC or LLP gives it without a co-founder
• LLP fits a bootstrapped, non-scalable business; Private Limited fits one that will raise and hire