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Time of India
19-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Deeptech VCs spot big funding momentum on government, geopolitical push
Indian deeptech funds such as Speciale Invest, Ideaspring and Mela Ventures are raising fresh funds to step up investments as more companies come in this space on the back of government initiatives, favourable geopolitical landscape and rapid technological advancement. ET has learnt that Java Capital is looking to up their fund size from Rs 50 crore to Rs 250 crore while Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF) is looking to raise $150 million, or about Rs 1,290 crore, for its second fund, according to media reports. Navam Capital is raising its maiden fund of $30 million, or about Rs 258 crore. Speciale Invest has closed its third fund but did not respond to ET's query on the closure. Ideaspring Capital and Mela Ventures are raising their third and second fund, respectively. ETtech Naganand Doraswamy, managing partner at Ideaspring Capital, said the new fund size is likely to exceed Rs 265 crore it had raised for the second fund. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Mela Ventures had raised Rs 320 crore in its first fund. The deeptech ecosystem in India is seeing a growth momentum with several startups in sectors like artificial intelligence (AI), spacetech, semiconductors, robotics and climate tech, increasing the competition for early-stage deals. According to data from Venture Intelligence , investments in deeptech doubled in the first four months of 2025 to $324 million across 35 deals against $156 million from 21 deals in the same period last year. ETtech In India's favour Ideaspring's Doraswamy told ET that while fundraising is still tough, the current geopolitical situation is playing in favour of India's startup ecosystem. Another deeptech investor explained that India is a top choice for global deeptech investors from the US and Europe, with many favouring India over China and Israel. Vinod Shankar, co-founder at Java Capital, said raising funds has become much easier than before. When they started in 2020, the fund had to explain to limited partners (LPs) what they are doing, he said. Rajeev Mantri, founder and managing partner of Navam Capital, who has been investing in the ecosystem since 2008, said that compared to five years ago, the velocity and scale of the ecosystem has grown manifold and it requires more financing support. Navam Capital, which has invested in Ather Energy and spacetech startup Agnikul Cosmos, will continue to focus on sectors such as aerospace, semiconductors, robotics and climate tech, he said. Challenges remain While investors are more open than before, raising funds is not easy as deeptech has a longer gestation period and fewer examples of successful exits, fund managers said. The deeptech investor cited above noted that India is yet to see breakout deeptech companies. 'Once that happens, we will have a lot of capital flow in the ecosystem,' he said. In addition, he said shadows of downfall of much celebrated startups such as GoMechanic and Byju's haunt the startup world, creating negative sentiments. 'The questions are not about valuation but about how much have you returned,' he added. Krishnakumar Natarajan, managing partner at Mela Ventures, said while there is early stage capital available, growth stage continues to be a challenge for deeptech startups.
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Deeptech startups snagged $324 million in first four months of the year
ETtech Live Events The R&D-focused and innovation-anchored deeptech ecosystem, contrary to perception, is lately drawing more money—and deals. Venture Intelligence data showed investments in deeptech doubled in the first four months of 2025 to $324 million across 35 deals, compared with $156 million in the same period last year that saw 21 such of the biggest deeptech deals in 2025 included a $90 million investment in Netradyne , an AI-based fleet management platform, by Qualcomm Ventures, Point72 Ventures and others; $54 million in SpotDraft, an AI-based contract management firm, from Trident Capital and others; $35 million investment in predictive maintenance service platform Infinite Uptime by Tiger Global, GSR Ventures and $21 million in Tonbo Imaging, which offers imaging and sensor systems to military, by Florintree and broadly refers to technology-based innovation that hinges on advanced scientific and engineering research, which require significant expertise, capital and union minister Piyush Goyal 's comment on the lack of a deeptech ecosystem certainly triggered the conversation, deeptech ecosystem has been seeing increasing interest for a while Natarajan, managing partner, Mela Ventures, said that unlike a few years ago, deeptech is seeing more commercial use cases making the sector Subramaniam, managing partner, Yali Capital, which has Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan as an advisor, said that there are more companies that are being created in deeptech now than before. This is formed by people from premier institutions and executives from multinational companies, who are choosing to stay back in the Shankar, co-founder, Java Capital, a deeptech fund, said that recent times have seen several government initiatives that attempt to grow the deeptech ecosystem in the country such as Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds to invest in deeptech and other initiatives that support semiconductors, space, and these are resulting in increased competition for deeptech deals in India.A partner from a deeptech fund told ET that they are now competing with larger players in early stage deeptech deals and are closing more as well. 'This year alone we have closed 4-5 deals at a higher valuation. We used to do 7-8 per year,' the investor Capital's Shankar said that initial investment for deeptech companies is now upwards of $4-5 million now, compared to $2-3 million a couple of years is also gaining momentum. For instance, Mela Ventures has invested along with Blume in Optimized ElectroTech, a defence technology Natarajan said that, unlike consumer technology startups, the model of investment for deeptech needs to be different as it takes a longer time to commercialise. 'If it is a 3–5-year horizon for consumer technology startups, in deeptech it requires 8-10 years. They also need intense involvement, hand-holding and mentoring to help them through the process,' he addition, one of the key challenges is also market creation. Natarajan explained that in many cases these startups are catering to the market that either does not exist or require firms to adopt a newer way. While funds like them are helping companies to reach the commercialisation stage, there is a need for intervention to drive market adoption. 'Like how the government offered subsidies for EVs (electric vehicles) there must be some incentives for customers to adopt deeptech solutions,' he added.
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Deeptech startups raked in $324 million in first four months of this year
The R&D-focused and innovation-anchored deeptech ecosystem, contrary to perception, is lately drawing more money—and deals. Venture Intelligence data showed investments in deeptech doubled in the first four months of 2025 to $324 million across 35 deals, compared with $156 million in the same period last year that saw 21 such commitments. Some of the biggest deeptech deals in 2025 included a $90 million investment in Netradyne , an AI-based fleet management platform, by Qualcomm Ventures, Point72 Ventures and others; $54 million in SpotDraft, an AI-based contract management firm, from Trident Capital and others; $35 million investment in predictive maintenance service platform Infinite Uptime by Tiger Global, GSR Ventures and $21 million in Tonbo Imaging, which offers imaging and sensor systems to military, by Florintree and others. Deeptech broadly refers to technology-based innovation that hinges on advanced scientific and engineering research, which require significant expertise, capital and time. While union minister Piyush Goyal 's comment on the lack of a deeptech ecosystem certainly triggered the conversation, deeptech ecosystem has been seeing increasing interest for a while now. ETtech Live Events More interest Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Krishnakumar Natarajan, managing partner, Mela Ventures, said that unlike a few years ago, deeptech is seeing more commercial use cases making the sector attractive. Ganapathy Subramaniam, managing partner, Yali Capital, which has Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan as an advisor, said that there are more companies that are being created in deeptech now than before. This is formed by people from premier institutions and executives from multinational companies, who are choosing to stay back in the country. Vinod Shankar, co-founder, Java Capital, a deeptech fund, said that recent times have seen several government initiatives that attempt to grow the deeptech ecosystem in the country such as Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds to invest in deeptech and other initiatives that support semiconductors, space, and biotech. All these are resulting in increased competition for deeptech deals in India. Rising competition A partner from a deeptech fund told ET that they are now competing with larger players in early stage deeptech deals and are closing more as well. 'This year alone we have closed 4-5 deals at a higher valuation. We used to do 7-8 per year,' the investor said. Java Capital's Shankar said that initial investment for deeptech companies is now upwards of $4-5 million now, compared to $2-3 million a couple of years ago. Co-investing is also gaining momentum. For instance, Mela Ventures has invested along with Blume in Optimized ElectroTech, a defence technology startup. Challenges Persist Mela's Natarajan said that, unlike consumer technology startups, the model of investment for deeptech needs to be different as it takes a longer time to commercialise. 'If it is a 3–5-year horizon for consumer technology startups, in deeptech it requires 8-10 years. They also need intense involvement, hand-holding and mentoring to help them through the process,' he explained. In addition, one of the key challenges is also market creation. Natarajan explained that in many cases these startups are catering to the market that either does not exist or require firms to adopt a newer way. While funds like them are helping companies to reach the commercialisation stage, there is a need for intervention to drive market adoption. 'Like how the government offered subsidies for EVs (electric vehicles) there must be some incentives for customers to adopt deeptech solutions,' he added.
