On November 12, 2025, the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) convened its flagship ‘Circles – Bangalore Edition’. The event stressed that India’s next chapter of technological ascendancy will be driven by deep tech: long-horizon, research-intensive innovation, rather than the faster-moving consumer web plays.
Investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers deliberated on the central query: How can India translate its research-rich promise into real-world, global-scale companies?
Patient Capital and Government-Industry Collaboration
“Deep tech investing in India is often misunderstood. The real opportunity lies in identifying scalable innovations early, supporting them through the long development cycles, and thinking strategically about exits,” said Manish Kheterpal, co-founder and managing partner at WaterBridge Ventures and co-chair of the IVCA VC Council.
Success follows when investors, founders, academia and the government work together to turn research into real-world impact, he added.
Notably, Kheterpal pointed to parallels in the US, where companies like SpaceX or Palantir Technologies derive 60–90% of their revenue from government contracts, and argued that “if we want to create large companies with Indian sovereignty, the government must also partner commercially with deep tech companies.”
His remarks were echoed by Siddarth Pai, founding partner at 3one4 Capital and co-chair of IVCA’s regulatory affairs committee: “India’s deep tech moment is the convergence of three different factors—capital, talent, and policy. Each feeds into the other to create a virtuous cycle.”
He further noted that thanks to frameworks such as the newly announced RDI (Research, Development & Innovation) Fund, the country is “expected to galvanise over ₹4 lakh crore of additional capital for deep tech in India.”
From IT Hub to Deep Tech Nucleus
The event underscored the role of Bengaluru and the state government in backing this shift. In a fireside chat, Rajan Anandan, managing director, Peak XV Partners & Surge and Priyank Kharge, minister for electronics, IT, biotechnology & rural development, government of Karnataka, agreed that Karnataka is not just a backdrop, but a protagonist in the deep tech story.
“Karnataka has always been at the forefront of innovation, and as we look ahead, we are entering the deep tech decade for the state,” Kharge said, adding that the goal is to build globally employable talent, empower entrepreneurs beyond Bengaluru, and enable deep tech solutions that define India’s future.
Indeed, Karnataka’s latest startup policy (2025-30) with a ₹518 crore outlay intends to generate 25,000 new startups and specifically emphasises emerging tech such as AI, quantum computing and blockchain.
Upward Momentum, Gaps
On paper, the deep tech surge is real. According to IVCA’s own data excerpted at the event, India’s deep tech sector saw funding grow from $103 million in 2019 to $1.27 billion in 2023, before moderating to $709 million in 2024.
It now comprises over 13% of India’s $11 billion venture capital ecosystem. Meanwhile, more than 3,600 deep tech startups operating across various sectors, including semiconductors, quantum computing, biotech, clean energy, and space, have raised over $383.4 million (₹34,000 crore) since 2020.
Independent data draw a similar contour: one analysis estimates roughly $8.5 billion has been cumulatively invested in Indian deep tech over the past decade, with the peak annual number ($2.15 billion) in 2022.
Another commentary points out that while Indian deep tech startups raised $1.6 billion in 2024 (a 78% jump year-on-year), they still received only about 5% of the country’s total startup funding, far behind China’s ~35% share.
A recent initiative, the India Deep Tech Alliance, launched in September 2025 with a $1 billion pledge has already secured fresh commitments of $850 million from investors such as NVIDIA Corporation, Qualcomm Ventures and others.
What’s Ahead?
What is clear from the IVCA Forum is that deep tech cannot be treated like traditional digital startups. The units of play are different: longer development cycles, higher risk, more complex commercialisation, often requiring government procurement, ecosystem orchestration and patience.
As industry experts write, “The ground realities of competing in the space race for India include structural gaps such as fragmented demand, uneven policy execution and thin, specialised talent pools.”
Hence, the emphasis at the event was on building the value chain, not just the venture. As Kharge put it: “We’re investing not just in startups but in the entire value chain that makes startups into unicorns, from research and skilling to incubation and acceleration.”
India is no longer content to be the world’s back-office for services. Instead, it sees deep tech as a lever for sovereignty (in semiconductors, space, AI), for manufacturing, and for an economy less dependent on incremental digital services.
If India indeed is at the cusp of its “deep tech decade”, then the ingredients are falling into place: a global investor reset, rising policy priority, clusters like Bengaluru, and a pipeline of founders who refuse to settle for ordinary.
As Manish Kheterpal summed up: “The real opportunity lies in identifying scalable innovations early, supporting them through the long development cycles.” Only now, India is building the infrastructure to do just that.
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