NVIDIA and Qualcomm Ventures have joined a rising coalition of U.S. and Indian buyers backing India’s deep tech startups. The group launched in September with greater than $1 billion in commitments, timing that aligns with India’s new ₹1 trillion (round $12 billion) analysis and improvement initiative.
NVIDIA has joined the coalition as a strategic technical advisor, with none monetary commitments, whereas Qualcomm Ventures has come on board alongside six Indian enterprise corporations, bringing extra capital commitments totaling greater than $850 million.
India is residence to greater than 180,000 startups and over 120 unicorns. In its early years, a lot of the ecosystem carefully mirrored Western enterprise fashions earlier than evolving into SaaS firms that serve world purchasers, particularly these within the U.S. Lately, nevertheless, India’s focus has shifted to constructing ventures that deal with more durable, infrastructure-scale issues — from launching satellites and electrifying transportation to designing semiconductors. The Indian authorities has sought to speed up this shift as main economies race to safe technological sovereignty. But capital for such ventures stays scarce, as they require an extended gestation interval than conventional sectors and most VCs favor confirmed, lower-risk fashions.
In September, Silicon Valley- and India-based Celesta Capital spearheaded the launch of the India Deep Tech Alliance (IDTA) to bridge that hole, bringing collectively seven main U.S. and Indian buyers — Accel, Blume Ventures, Premji Make investments, Gaja Capital, Ideaspring Capital, Tenacity Ventures, and Enterprise Catalysts. The newest addition contains Indian enterprise corporations Activate AI, Chiratae Ventures, InfoEdge Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Singularity Holdings, and YourNest Enterprise Capital.
The coalition goals to take a position capital and supply mentorship and community entry to Indian deep-tech startups over the subsequent 5 to 10 years. It additionally plans to collaborate with the Indian authorities on its coverage initiatives, together with the lately launched Analysis, Growth and Innovation (RDI) scheme.
“It’s a coalition of the willing, wanting to support the development of the Indian deep tech ecosystem,” Sriram Viswanathan, founding managing companion of Celesta Capital and founding govt council member of the IDTA, mentioned in an interview.
Accredited by the Indian cupboard earlier this yr and rolled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week, the ₹1 trillion RDI scheme will fund initiatives in areas equivalent to power safety and transition, quantum computing, robotics, area tech, biotech, and AI by way of long-term loans, fairness infusions, and allocations to deep-tech funds of funds. The enterprise corporations collaborating within the alliance plan to leverage the initiative to again Indian-domiciled deep-tech startups.
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“This is, in a way, the most seminal moment where the Indian government’s action will drive creation and the formation of many of these deep tech companies and will be supported by a number of VCs in India that are really looking at developing this ecosystem,” Viswanathan advised TechCrunch. “There is a turning point in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem in favor of deep tech, and that’s what we’re all excited about.”
The alliance has introduced in NVIDIA to offer strategic and technical steerage to its members and rising startups. The U.S. chipmaker — whose market worth has surged amid the worldwide growth in AI — will advise on finest practices for integrating NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing platforms, provide technical talks and coaching by way of the NVIDIA Deep Studying Institute, and contribute to coverage dialogues between trade and the federal government to advance India’s deep-tech capabilities, the alliance mentioned in a press release.
Though NVIDIA is not going to take part financially, Vishal Dhupar, NVIDIA’s managing director for South Asia, mentioned the corporate will share technical insights and scalable computing assets with Indian startups within the coalition.
“NVIDIA’s support is a pretty significant validation of the ecosystem, and them joining the IDTA is an endorsement of our collective objective that there is an opportunity for India to start seeing a burgeoning growth of this ecosystem,” Viswanathan advised TechCrunch.
In contrast to NVIDIA, Qualcomm is becoming a member of the alliance with an funding focus. The San Diego–primarily based chipmaker made its first India funding in 2008, with early bets together with Google Maps rival MapmyIndia, which went public in late 2021. Qualcomm and Celesta additionally backed Indian drone maker IdeaForge, which has been a publicly listed firm since 2023.
Nevertheless, Qualcomm’s participation will prolong past capital, mentioned Rama Bethmangalkar, India managing director at Qualcomm Ventures. The agency plans to assist startups join with its portfolio firms, companion networks, and inside groups inside Qualcomm, he advised TechCrunch.
“If you are like minded and other VCs have allocated certain portion of their resources, dollars, time, and network, it helps each other and then collectively to work with the government, to be aligned with what the government is thinking on certain areas, whether it is quantum, semiconductors, AI, or emerging technologies, it is very important to be part of that group,” he mentioned.
That mentioned, the success of the IDTA stays to be seen. Viswanathan described the alliance as a “loose coalition of the willing,” noting that collaborating buyers proceed to run their very own applications.
“We’re collaborating to share knowledge, to share deal flow, and all of that,” he mentioned when requested concerning the progress because the alliance’s launch in September.
It’s also unclear how a lot of the capital every participant will contribute.
“We’re just collectively estimating what the total commitment is to this ecosystem,” Viswanathan mentioned. “This alliance is not a fund. There’s no obligation, no allocation, if you will, of any deal. If Rama finds a deal, he will do it. If Rama finds it appropriate to bring in other investors, he’ll share the deal with other investors that he thinks are relevant for that investment.”
India’s deep-tech funding rose 78% year-over-year to $1.6 billion in 2024, in response to a report by IT trade physique Nasscom and world consulting agency Zinnov launched in April. Whereas the expansion is promising, the capital raised nonetheless trails far behind that in developed markets, particularly the U.S.
The alliance might assist improve that determine, however extra importantly, it’s anticipated to attract world consideration — and, in flip, extra buyers and company enterprise funds — to India’s startup ecosystem.
“What we need are role models to begin with,” mentioned Bethmangalkar. “People are going to jump in. Entrepreneurs are going to get the confidence capital… In ten years, you’ll start seeing these as the companies listed on the main boards of our exchanges — deeply science- and tech-oriented firms.”
