Indian startup leaders, UK minister discuss future of AI collaboration

Founders and leaders from the startup ecosystem met with UK Minister for AI and Online Safety, Kanishka Narayan, to discuss AI and tech collaboration.

The setting for the meeting was at a punting session on the River Cam in Cambridge. The discussions took place on the sidelines of the Cambridge India Business Dialogue as part of the Startup Policy Forum's UK Startup Safari delegation. 

Minister Narayan spoke of deepening the India-UK innovation corridor, while founders shared their journeys and the pulse of innovation back home.

The minister said, "Closer collaboration between our innovation and startup ecosystems holds huge potential for new jobs and opportunities for the UK and India. Working side by side, we're setting sail on a shared future of growth, where ideas, expertise and ambition flow freely between our countries."

The exchange comes at a pivotal moment. Following the landmark India–UK Free Trade Agreement, the UK’s most significant bilateral trade deal since Brexit, annual bilateral trade is projected to increase by £25.5 billion over the long term.

Shweta Rajpal Kohli, President and CEO of Startup Policy Forum, said: "Few settings are more fitting for a conversation about the future of AI than the Cambridge waterways that once carried the ideas of Newton, Darwin, and Turing."

"This Startup Safari has reinforced our conviction that the India-UK innovation corridor is ready to move from conversation to action. SPF looks forward to deepening this partnership and building a strong bridge between India and the UK's tech and policy ecosystems," she added.

Startup Policy Forum is India’s leading new-economy platform, representing more than 75 companies with a combined valuation of over $100 billion across fintech, deeptech, consumer internet, and enterprise software.

The delegation included Sambhav Jain, Fam (Founder & CEO); Bhavik Koladiya, BharatPe (Founder) & OTPLess (CEO); Satish Narayanan, SQ1 Security (Co-founder & CEO); Ritesh Jain, FlexiLoans (Founder); Akash Sinha, Cashfree Payments (Co-Founder); Nitin Thakur, PRISM (Group President); Raja Ganapathy, Spring Marketing Capital (Founding Partner); Aishwarya Malhi, Rebalance (Co-Founder); Ashumi Sanghvi, Future+ (Founder); Samridhi Shoor, Aegion (Founder & CEO); and Atul Gupta, BBBS (Strategic Advisor).

Members also visited the UK Parliament for a session with Lord Karan Bilimoria, and held meetings with the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Periasamy Kumaran, and Minister (Economic) Nidhi Mani Tripathi.

The delegation also met with frontier AI firms, including Graphcore, Beamery, Brahma AI, and Nothing, to explore where the next wave of innovation is taking shape beyond Silicon Valley and how India and the UK can build a stronger corridor for AI collaboration amid the UK’s evolving tech and R&D ambitions.