How 50 Indian startups are riding the wave of vertical AI: Upekkha Report

Enterprises around the world are shifting their artificial‑intelligence budgets away from one‑size‑fits‑all models and toward vertical AI systems—solutions built to the demands of specific industries. Last year, global spending on domain‑specific, or vertical, AI topped $5 billion, and at a sustained compound annual growth rate exceeding 40%, it is on track to reach nearly $47 billion by 2030.

AI accelerator Upekkha and SaaSBoomi, in its newly released VIBE50 report, tracked 50 emerging Indian vertical AI startups (pre-seed to series B) across the stack in finance, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, energy and more. 

The report stated how India’s deep bench of more than 100,000 engineers, shaped by two decades of outsourcing to American enterprises, has given rise to a vertical‑AI ecosystem that delivers comparable capabilities at a fraction of Silicon Valley costs. 

“Enterprise leaders are struggling to square the hype and promise of AI with the high failure rate from pilot to production. Hearing CxOs who are ahead on the AI curve talk not only about what’s working, but also what didn’t, helps us get the clarity needed to leapfrog as an ecosystem,” said Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, Managing Partner at Upekkha.

It added how homegrown startups are moving beyond proof‑of‑concepts to live deployments in various sectors, leveraging local know‑how and cross‑border go‑to‑market playbooks.

The report predicts that, over the next 24 months, three platform shifts will redefine the AI space: major cloud providers will underwrite the cost of vertical‑AI compute, production‑grade local language models will finally come of age, and the first real agent frameworks will emerge. 

In the financial services sector, the report spotlights Signzy, Credgenics, Prudent, Skit.ai and Pinegap, which are utilising domain‑specific AI, ranging from digital KYC and credit risk automation. 

Within healthcare, DeepTek, Tricog Health, Elucidata, ToothLens and Cogniswitch stand out for applying AI to critical medical workflows. 

On the manufacturing front, Detect Technologies, Uptime AI, Raven and Zumen are building AI solutions that optimise plant operations. 

“We're witnessing the early stages of a massive market shift. There are hundreds of industries still running on spreadsheets and manual processes. Each represents a potential billion-dollar vertical AI opportunity. The winning strategy is clear: start with an underserved vertical, prove the model with measurable ROI, expand to developed markets with that proof, then own the category globally,” read the report. 

In January, Upekkha closed the first tranche of its $40 million fund, bagging $15 million in backing led by India–US crossover investor WestBridge Capital.

In addition, SaaSBoomi, the community of SaaS founders and other software developers, launched BoomiAI in March, its latest initiative to support founders building AI-first companies.