NVIDIA, Qualcomm join U.S., Indian VCs to help build India’s next deep tech startups

NVIDIA and Qualcomm Ventures have joined a rising coalition of U.S. and Indian traders 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 further capital commitments totaling greater than $850 million.

India is house 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 shoppers, particularly these within the U.S. Lately, nonetheless, India’s focus has shifted to constructing ventures that sort out 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 traders — Accel, Blume Ventures, Premji Make investments, Gaja Capital, Ideaspring Capital, Tenacity Ventures, and Enterprise Catalysts. The most recent addition consists of 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 following 5 to 10 years. It additionally plans to collaborate with the Indian authorities on its coverage initiatives, together with the just lately launched Analysis, Growth and Innovation (RDI) scheme.

“It’s a coalition of the keen, desirous to assist the event of the Indian deep tech ecosystem,” Sriram Viswanathan, founding managing associate of Celesta Capital and founding government council member of the IDTA, stated in an interview.

Authorised by the Indian cupboard earlier this 12 months and rolled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week, the ₹1 trillion RDI scheme will fund tasks in areas equivalent to power safety and transition, quantum computing, robotics, area tech, biotech, and AI by means of long-term loans, fairness infusions, and allocations to deep-tech funds of funds. The enterprise corporations taking part within the alliance plan to leverage the initiative to again Indian-domiciled deep-tech startups.

“That is, in a approach, essentially the most seminal second the place the Indian authorities’s motion will drive creation and the formation of many of those deep tech firms and shall be supported by plenty of VCs in India which are actually taking a look at creating this ecosystem,” Viswanathan advised Trendster. “There’s a turning level within the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem in favor of deep tech, and that’s what we’re all enthusiastic 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, supply technical talks and coaching by means of the NVIDIA Deep Studying Institute, and contribute to coverage dialogues between business and the federal government to advance India’s deep-tech capabilities, the alliance stated in an announcement.

Though NVIDIA won’t take part financially, Vishal Dhupar, NVIDIA’s managing director for South Asia, stated the corporate will share technical insights and scalable computing sources with Indian startups within the coalition.

“NVIDIA’s assist is a reasonably vital validation of the ecosystem, and them becoming a member of the IDTA is an endorsement of our collective goal that there’s a possibility for India to begin seeing a burgeoning development of this ecosystem,” Viswanathan advised Trendster.

Not like NVIDIA, Qualcomm is becoming a member of the alliance with an funding focus. The San Diego–based mostly 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 lengthen past capital, stated Rama Bethmangalkar, India managing director at Qualcomm Ventures. The agency plans to assist startups join with its portfolio firms, associate networks, and inside groups inside Qualcomm, he advised Trendster.

“If you’re like minded and different VCs have allotted sure portion of their sources, {dollars}, time, and community, it helps one another after which collectively to work with the federal government, to be aligned with what the federal government is pondering on sure areas, whether or not it’s quantum, semiconductors, AI, or rising applied sciences, it is vitally essential to be a part of that group,” he stated.

That stated, the success of the IDTA stays to be seen. Viswanathan described the alliance as a “unfastened coalition of the keen,” noting that taking part traders proceed to run their very own packages.

“We’re collaborating to share information, to share deal movement, and all of that,” he stated when requested in regards to the progress for the reason that alliance’s launch in September.

It’s also unclear how a lot of the capital every participant will contribute.

“We’re simply collectively estimating what the whole dedication is to this ecosystem,” Viswanathan stated. “This alliance is just not a fund. There’s no obligation, no allocation, if you’ll, of any deal. If Rama finds a deal, he’ll do it. If Rama finds it acceptable to usher in different traders, he’ll share the cope with different traders that he thinks are related for that funding.”

India’s deep-tech funding rose 78% year-over-year to $1.6 billion in 2024, in keeping with a report by IT business 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 enhance that determine, however extra importantly, it’s anticipated to attract world consideration — and, in flip, extra traders and company enterprise funds — to India’s startup ecosystem.

“What we want are position fashions to start with,” stated Bethmangalkar. “Persons are going to leap in. Entrepreneurs are going to get the arrogance capital… In ten years, you’ll begin seeing these as the businesses listed on the primary boards of our exchanges — deeply science- and tech-oriented corporations.”