New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) India’s deeptech sector has attracted nearly $11.4 billion in private equity and venture capital investments between 2015 and 2026 year-to-date, according to a report released on Monday.
A report by the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) said that 2025 emerged as the strongest year on record despite a broader slowdown in startup funding.
It further noted a sharp increase in investment activity in the sector since 2016, mirroring a global shift towards deep technologies.
In addition, artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI, electric vehicles (EVs) and battery technologies accounted for a significant share of deployed capital, while semiconductors and spacetech emerged as the fastest-growing segments.
IVCA President Rajat Tandon said India’s deeptech ecosystem is evolving from a stage of promise to one attracting more investible commitments, backed by rising institutional participation.
He said bridging the Series B and Series C funding gap, increasing domestic limited partner (LP) participation, improving exit opportunities and strengthening the policy ecosystem would be critical for building globally competitive deeptech companies.
Geographically, Bengaluru remained the leading deeptech investment hub, accounting for around half of all deals and funding over the past decade.
However, emerging centres such as Ahmedabad, Kochi and Kolkata are beginning to attract greater deeptech activity.
The report also showed that a majority of surveyed funds have actively invested in deeptech sectors with the highest participation in AI, generative AI and software-as-a-service (SaaS), followed by spacetech and defence.
It identified a persistent funding gap at the growth stage and noted that investor participation falls sharply beyond the seed stage and few funds are able to provide larger growth-stage investments that created a mismatch between traditional fund structures and the longer timelines required to commercialise deep technologies.
Additionally, India’s deeptech LP base is currently dominated by domestic investors, including family offices, institutions and high-net-worth individuals, although participation from global and corporate LPs is increasing.
–IANS
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