By Aditya Soni
(Reuters) -Nvidia on Wednesday joined Indian and U.S. investors backing the south Asian country's deep-tech startups as the group added new members and secured more than $850 million in capital commitments to close a big funding gap.
Qualcomm Ventures, Activate AI, InfoEdge Ventures, Chirate Ventures and Kalaari Capital are among the new investors joining the India Deep Tech Alliance.
It was launched in September with a $1 billion initial commitment to support companies in industries
such as space, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and robotics.
As a founding member and strategic advisor to the group, Nvidia will provide technical guidance, training and policy input to help Indian deep-tech startups adopt its AI and computing tools.
The move is the latest effort to tackle what founders and analysts describe as chronic underfunding of the research-driven startups, which struggle to draw venture capital given their long development timelines and uncertain paths to profitability.
It comes days after the Indian government launched a $12 billion initiative to spur research and development in a country that is a services giant but still trails in manufacturing.
Deep-tech startup funding in India surged 78% to $1.6 billion last year, but still accounted for only about one-fifth of the $7.4 billion raised overall, according to a report by industry body Nasscom.
An Indian minister's call in April for startups to emulate China by focusing on high-end technology rather than grocery deliveries had drawn backlash from entrepreneurs, who said the government needed to do more to support innovation.
Experts have said deep-tech investment is vital to build core technologies such chips and artificial intelligence that secure economic and strategic independence.
Sriram Viswanathan, founding managing partner at Celesta Capital, told Reuters the increasing government support meant that "there's no better time for India to look at deep tech".
Celesta, which has invested in startups including space-tech firm Agnikul Cosmos and drone maker IdeaForge, was among the investors that launched the alliance along with Accel, Blume Ventures, Gaja Capital, Premji Invest, among others.
The alliance's members aim to deploy their own capital to Indian deep-tech startups over the next five to ten years while also providing mentorship and network access.
"There's no real pooling of capital. It's voluntary," Viswanathan said, drawing parallels to Nasscom.
(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
