India now home to 3K deeptech startups that raised $2.7bn in 2021

NEW DELHI: India is witnessing a boom in deeptech startups in niche areas like cybersecurity, quantum computing, AI and semiconductor, and the country is now home to more than 3,000 such startups that raised $2.7 billion in 2021 -- a 1.6 times growth over 2020 -- a new Nasscom report said on Monday.

The country added over 210 deeptech startups in 2021 alone, and Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR are leading them in the country, according to a Nasscom-Zinnov report.

"The Indian deeptech ecosystem has also fortified the job creation with over 4,000 people being employed across 14 potential deeptech unicorns and is expected to increase by 2X in headcount by 2026," said Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom.

The country is now home to 500 inventive deeptech startups, creating workforce across technologies such as drones, robotics, 3D printing and AI -- with the potential to develop new intellectual properties backed by scientific advances and fundamental research.

The deeptech ecosystem has grown at a staggering rate of 53 per cent CAGR in the last 10 years, growing at par with the Indian tech startups.

Nearly 70-75 per cent deeptech startups have at least 15 per cent of their workforce skilled in deep technologies, the report mentioned.

"Strategic partnership with the government, academia, global investors, streamlined corporate collaboration and dedicated test-bed programmes can create a massive impact on India's deeptech story," said Ghosh.

Although in a nascent stage compared to the US, Europe, Israel and China, the Indian deeptech ecosystem is expanding fast.

The industry is witnessing more start-ups emerging to solve global mega challenges of clean tech, zero hunger, smart cities and climate actions, the report said.

In 2021, over 270 unique startups raised $2.7 billion across 319 deals, with AI and big data and analytics being the top technologies raising equity investments.

The seed stage startups have witnessed a 2.3 times growth in equity investments in 2021, as compared to 2020, raising a total of $186 million funding in 2021.

Among verticals, supply chain management (SCM) and logistics were the most funded sectors in 2021, with deeptech startups raising funding across use cases like drone delivery, autonomous delivery bots, cold chain monitoring and fleet management, the report noted.