India’s deep tech ecosystem enters its coming-of-age phase

India’s technology narrative has been defined by software exports, engineering talent and cost-efficient execution for years. Deep tech occupied a more tentative place in that story—promising, perhaps, but perpetually described as a market of future potential rather than present capability.

That framing is increasingly out of date.

Speaking at the GCV Symposium in London, Priyanka Chopra, chief executive and managing partner of IIMA Ventures, the incubator, accelerator and VC arm of business school Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and Vipul Vachhani, founder and chief executive of Jaivel Aerospace, a UK-headquartered aviation parts manufacturer, argued that India’s deep tech sector has crossed an important threshold. The debate is no longer whether India can build globally relevant deep tech companies, but how quickly it can scale them.

“The biggest misunderstanding is that Indian deep tech is still a promise,” says Chopra.

The evidence, she believes, increasingly points elsewhere. Companies such as drones manufacturer IdeaForge have reached public markets, space launch company Skyroot Aerospace has become India’s first space tech unicorn, while semiconductor specialist Steradian was acquired by Renesas for its intellectual property rather than its engineering workforce. Together, they suggest an ecosystem beginning to generate commercially valuable technology rather than simply technical capability.

Equally outdated, Chopra argues, is the perception that India excels primarily at adapting innovations developed elsewhere.

“People think India deep tech means cost-arbitrage engineering. But we’re seeing innovation happening at the absolute frontiers.”

Founders returning from organisations including Google, NASA and SpaceX are increasingly building companies in India with global ambitions from day one, rather than creating local versions of established Western businesses.

Why this moment is different

Several structural shifts have converged to create what Chopra describes as India’s deep tech moment.

Policy has become more aligned with the realities of deep tech development. Historically, hardware startups were often judged against software timelines despite requiring years of research before generating meaningful revenue. India has since extended the formal definition of startups to 20 years, expanded government-backed research and innovation funding, and opened strategically important sectors including defence and space to greater private participation.

At the same time, founder demographics have changed. Earlier generations of entrepreneurs frequently emerged from family-owned businesses. Today’s deep tech founders increasingly come from elite engineering institutions and global technology companies, bringing both technical expertise and international experience.

“The single biggest leading indicator is the quality of founders choosing to come back and build for the world from India,” says Chopra.

Capital has also become more patient, although funding remains far shallower than in the US. Chopra estimates American deep tech companies raised roughly $145bn last year, compared with around $1.6bn in India — a gap she views as an opportunity for global corporate investors seeking earlier-stage valuations.

For Vachhani, who has spent three decades in aerospace manufacturing, the difference is visible in the calibre of founders.

“We could see the maturity of the founders’ thinking process at a super-early stage. Something I would have heard in Silicon Valley twenty years ago, I’m hearing those kinds of ambitions today.”

Innovation is not enough

However, scientific breakthroughs alone cannot determine whether India produces global industrial champions.

“Innovation is the purpose, product is the objective,” says Vachhani.

He argues that many founders underestimate the operational discipline required to commercialise deep tech. Speed matters, but only if it delivers production-ready hardware rather than endless experimentation.

“In today’s world, there is no space for a prototype prototype.”

That philosophy reflects India’s increasingly capable manufacturing ecosystem. Five or 10 years ago, startups often struggled to access advanced suppliers or specialist production capabilities domestically. Today, aerospace-grade manufacturing, quality systems and industrial infrastructure have matured sufficiently for startups to move from concept to production far more rapidly.

The result is a competitive advantage rooted not in low-cost engineering but in industrial execution.

The corporate opportunity

That evolution also changes how large corporations should engage with startups.

Chopra believes too many wait for proofs of concept before investing. By then, valuations are higher and opportunities to shape product development have largely disappeared.

Getting in early, however, is different since “the product direction is still open at the seed stage”.

Early partnerships allow corporates to influence technology roadmaps, validate commercial use cases and gain visibility into emerging technologies well before competitors. For startups, industrial partners provide manufacturing expertise, customer access and market credibility that financial investors alone cannot offer.

Rather than building early-stage investment capabilities internally, Chopra believes many corporations will increasingly partner with specialist venture platforms that understand local founders and emerging technologies while corporates contribute domain expertise and commercial networks.

Built in India, designed for the world

India remains a demanding market. Customers expect reliable products, procurement cycles are lengthy and resources remain constrained. But those challenges have become a strategic advantage, states Chopra.

“Companies that survive the Indian market travel really well,” she says.

Global success, however, requires more than resilient technology. Founders must develop disciplined go-to-market strategies, identify the right international customers and work with partners capable of opening overseas markets.

If the past decade established India’s scientific credibility, the next will test its ability to build enduring industrial companies. The foundations — world-class technical talent, improving manufacturing capability, more supportive policy and growing pools of patient capital — are now increasingly in place. It remains to be seen whether Indian deep tech can be commercialised at a global scale before the rest of the market fully catches up.

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