Corporate investors Nvidia, Qualcomm and InfoEdge, along with other Indian VC firms, add more than $850m to the India Deep Tech Investment Alliance.
Nvidia, Qualcomm Ventures and InfoEdge Ventures are the latest corporate investors to join the consortium of Indian and US investors backing India’s deep tech startups, according to Reuters.
The India Deep Tech Investment Alliance was launched in September with a $1bn initial commitment to provide capital for deep tech ventures that have historically struggled to secure funding in the country. It aims to focus on investing in early-stage startups.
Earlier this year, India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal called out domestic startups for focusing more on grocery deliveries than deep tech innovation. This was followed by the government approving a ₹1tn (approximately $11.3bn) initiative to spur research and development in deep tech.
The alliance was formed soon after and brought together VC and private equity firms such as Celesta Capital, Blume Ventures, Accel, Gaja Capital, Ideaspring Capital, Premji Invest, Tenacity Ventures and Venture Catalysts.
Nvidia has joined the alliance as a founding member and strategic advisor. It will provide technical guidance, training and policy input to help Indian deep tech startups adopt its AI and computing tools. CVCs Qualcomm Ventures and InfoEdge Ventures, along with VC firms Activate AI, Chirate Ventures and Kalaari Capital have joined the alliance and contributed more than $850m in capital commitments.
Over the next five to 10 years, each member of the alliance is expected to invest capital in Indian deep tech in sectors such as semiconductors, space, quantum computing, robotics and AI.
Ankit Mehta, CEO of unmanned aircraft systems maker IdeaForge, says India has the potential to be a deep tech hub but is hindered by timing. “There are good entrepreneurs or good technologists creating technology, but they end up getting support too late,” he says.
An alliance such as this might just be the answer.
