Betting big on India's deeptech startups

Good Morning,

Raising early-stage funds is an uphill climb for deeptech startups. And not many are willing to back these bold startups until the breakthrough of the technologies they are building. 

IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE)-backed early-stage venture firm Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF) is one of the few providing Pre-Series A and Series A funding to deeptech and IP-focussed startups, who otherwise remain outside the profile and deal flow of most PE funds. 

This three-year-old Category-I Venture Capital (VC) firm has so far funded seven deeptech startups, and has made several other undisclosed investments in tech infrastructure/inclusion solutions, deploying almost 40 percent of its fund pool of $100 million.

These startups include credit-scoring platform CreditVidya, emotion recognition startup Entropik Tech, industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) startup DeTech Technologies, AR-enabled toymaker PlayShifu, and data analytics platform vPhrase. 

Co-founder Kunal Upadhyay says the idea of setting up BIF came from two broad thematic areas that were emerging out of the Indian startup ecosystem. 

One was the creation of solutions that can have an impact on the masses and are not restricted to just the creamy layer, and the second were solutions for the world coming out of India.

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News & Updates

• Flipkart has announced the expansion of its supply chain network in Karnataka with three new fulfilment and sortation centres located at Kolar, Hubli, and Anekal, which are expected to create over 14,000 jobs.

• SIDBI has provided the first approval to the Tamil Nadu govt under the SIDBI Cluster Development Fund (SCDF). This initiative is aimed at upgrading various existing MSME clusters and developing new industrial infrastructural facilities in Tamil Nadu.

• The Ministry of Electronics and IT and Paytm signed a deal to help scale Indian startups in the deep-tech space by providing them access to knowledge resources, mentorship opportunities, go-to-market assistance, tech assistance etc.

• The government will soon launch a special incentive scheme to support 75 startups in areas of telemedicine, digital health and artificial intelligence, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh has said.

• Hiring activity witnessed an overall 4 percent sequential growth in July, and the uptick was mainly spread across metros, as per Monster Employment Index by Monster.com. Compared to June, July 2021 saw a notable overall monthly growth of 4 percent in hiring across all metros.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“Global game-changing products will come out of deeptech. It's a multi-billion dollar opportunity and we are backing game-changing innovations that will be made in India, for the world.” 

— Kunal Upadhyay, Co-founder of Bharat Innovation Fund

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