India now has 3,600 deeptech startups, ranks 6th globally: Nasscom

India now ranks sixth among the top nine deeptech ecosystems globally with 3,600 such startups, which received $850 million funding last year, a Nasscom report said on Thursday.

From 3,600 startups, over 480 were established last year — two times higher than the number established in 2022 -- according to the report by Nasscom and Zinnov.

Of these 480 startups launched in 2023, over 100 are “inventive deeptech firms that have developed intellectual property or innovative solutions in new domains.”

Notably, 74 per cent of the deeptech startups established this year have concentrated on AI, a significant increase from 62 per cent in the period from 2014 to 2022.

Deeptech startups such as Agnikul, GalaxyEye, HealthPlix, Sarvam AI and Peptris, among others, are emerging in areas of healthtech, sustainability, AI and space-tech etc.

“Areas such as AI, quantum computing, space-tech, next-gen robotics and others will come together in interesting ways and be applied across every domain from education, entertainment, commerce, agriculture, industrial manufacturing, mobility, and several others,” said Jeyandran Venugopal, Chair, Nasscom DeepTech Council.

“India, with its deep talent base and traditional strength of producing top-notch STEM talent is well positioned to play a dominant role in this technology-led societal transition process,” he added.

While the country is ranked third in the technology startup ecosystem, it is at the sixth position for deeptech startups.

“For India to be in the top three deeptech startups ecosystem, key areas that need support are access to patient capital for deeptech startups, strong R&D partnerships with academia and implementation of the deeptech policy that was tabled in 2023”, explained Kritika Murugesan, Head, Nasscom DeepTech.