India\u2019s deep tech dreams hinge not just on money but on ambition and a robust ecosystem, say Kris Gopalakrishnan and Madan Padaki. For India to compete globally, startups, government, and investors must align to turn ideas into impact.<\/p>\n
Students are working on deep tech. Startups are building on deep tech. Investors want to fund deep tech. The government is aggressively pushing deep tech.<\/p>\n
In the past few years, \u201cdeep tech\u201d has become the buzzword dominating India\u2019s technology discourse. As the country races to catch up in the global AI and innovation sweepstakes, the ecosystem to support deep tech ventures is undoubtedly getting stronger. Yet, according to Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman of Axilor Ventures and co-founder of Infosys, India still faces a significant hurdle: a lack of ambition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmbition is what we\u2019re still lacking. We have the people, the talent, the numbers, but unless we aim higher and push harder, we won\u2019t catch up in the global deep tech and AI race. What happened in start-ups needs to happen in research too,\u201d says Gopalakrishnan, speaking on the sidelines of the Matrix Global Summit 2025 hosted by TiE Bangalore.<\/p>\n
While innovation is certainly bubbling within India\u2019s startup scene, Gopalakrishnan notes that founders must think differently, either for the global market or for unique Indian contexts. \u201cYou can\u2019t take something from elsewhere and simply bring it to India,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Comparing India\u2019s current startup ecosystem to that of the United States, Gopalakrishnan points out a stark difference in maturity. India\u2019s ecosystem is about 15 years old, while the US has been building its innovation muscles since the 1960s, undergoing several cycles of maturation and growth.<\/p>\n
Funding Gaps and Risk Appetite<\/p>\n
Yet ambition alone isn\u2019t enough. Deep tech demands significant capital, and that\u2019s where India faces its second big challenge. Investors in India are often cautious, unwilling to write large cheques for high-risk ventures. Traditional enterprises, despite having the funds, often lack the appetite for risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key difference is that traditional businesses invest using internal accruals\u2014their profits are invested back,\u201d Gopalakrishnan explains. \u201cStart-ups, however, work with risk funding because VCs know that one out of ten start-ups will work. They\u2019re willing to lose money on the remaining nine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Start-up founders, he emphasises, operate using other people\u2019s money. Investors are willing to absorb losses in pursuit of outsized returns. \u201cIf you lose money in an existing business, you are punished. So you do incremental stuff. You don\u2019t take huge risks. Start-ups can take huge risks,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s precisely why many of the world\u2019s top ten companies by market capitalisation in the US are less than 50 years old.<\/p>\n
Given this landscape, there\u2019s an essential role for the government in fostering India\u2019s deep tech ambitions. Beyond financial investments, India needs a robust ecosystem of grants, incentives, and collaborative initiatives to push homegrown deep tech startups onto the global stage.<\/p>\n
Madan Padaki, President of TiE Bangalore and founder of 1BRIDGE, believes the country requires a three-pronged approach\u2014taking fundamental research from universities and research labs and commercialising it, ensuring startups engage effectively with that research ecosystem, and applying those technologies to solve real-world problems and create measurable impact.<\/p>\n
While Padaki acknowledges that innovation is happening across sectors including agriculture, supply chain, and healthcare, he cautions that progress remains fragmented.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we are seeing some innovations in agriculture, supply chain, healthcare\u2014but still flashes in the pan. Still islands of excellence. It works in some places but hasn\u2019t reached others. That\u2019s the India view,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
As India aspires to become a deep tech powerhouse, ambition, funding, and a vibrant ecosystem must converge. The next chapter in India\u2019s innovation journey will depend not just on bold founders or big cheques\u2014but on building an interconnected system that can transform cutting-edge research into globally competitive solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India\u2019s deep tech dreams hinge not just on money but on ambition and a robust ecosystem, say Kris…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,607,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-34876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114788468136907242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}