So, India is said to have about 4000 DeepTech startups and out of these startups, about 500 of them are said to have been created in 2023 alone. And while that shows an increase in the number of DeepTech startups, a report describes that they have raised. just $850 million in 2023, which was said to be close to an 80% decline from the $3.7 billion raised in 2022.
what is going on Because it looks like India has seen the potential by DeepTech. Is it the arrival of generative AI? Are you taking advantage of India’s large pool of engineers? In addition to those aspects, in 2023, the governments of India and the United States came together to sign a pact to strengthen their DeepTech ecosystems. So the interest is there. But where do you go from here?
How can DeepTech startups be empowered? Even if there is raw talent, what happens when the rubber hits the road? How can an idea that may be brilliant in theory be ready for the market? Just as India and the US have come together, are more partnerships and collaborations needed to accelerate the DeepTech ecosystem in India?
Perhaps DeepTech startups can look to organizations looking to take them to the next level.
According to Kiran Shesh, CEO of TIH Foundation for IoT and IoE (TIH-IoT) at IIT-Bombay, “We are in the business of supporting technology development at the depth value stage, which is from TRL (Technology Readiness Level) 4 to TRL 7. Our job is to discover the right technologies that have a high impact for India and identify technologies that can be commercialized and can result in products that can be deployed.”
“Once we invest in a startup, we could help them grow by giving them business, finding them customers and helping them identify potential venture capital, so they can move from seed support to Series A funding along with scholarships and training programs. We also work so that students, startups, academia and industry can come together and create magic in the IoT technology vertical… We don’t want to develop technology that ends up as a publication in a library, so it’s an impact-oriented activity,” said Shesh.
So someone in the early stages of TRL can focus on building a strong prototype and validating the technology. Someone in the later stage of TRL can focus on perfecting the product, addressing technical challenges, and figuring out how to market it.
Shesh commented, “Companies have the option of creating a large R&D team within the organization and having them work on new products or improve existing products. There’s always a make or buy decision for the company if they should have something. – home or linked to academia where research is at the frontier of technology. Thus, we become the extended arm for technological development.”
“As a national centre, we have access to faculties in IITs and even NITs, so we created a project team consisting of a consortium of professors from different institutes. It might not have been possible earlier, because everyone was working in silos,” he said Shesh.
For DeepTech entrepreneurs, there may be an appeal in purely theoretical research. There could be a stronger focus on solving real-world problems and adapting innovation to address them. Beyond basic ideas and prototypes, the technology needs to be developed to the point where it is demonstrably functional and has a clear path to commercialization. An incubator or technology development center could offer a wealth of resources, such as funding, BD and network access, that could help refine the business model and scaling strategies.
And there’s no time like the present to start this.
Shesh said, “When it comes to India’s startup ecosystem, for anyone in the age group of 20-30, there is no better time than now if one wants to become an entrepreneur and fall because there is a buffer ecosystem that prevents them from someone There is support in terms of funding and talent. If someone creates technology but no jobs are created, it is possible that nothing will be done twenty or 30 years ago, because of the social structure, entrepreneurship was never promoted and now it is much more open And there is no shortage of money for good ideas”.
And while entrepreneurship has become table talk in the middle class, perhaps due to Shark Tank India, there is also a unicorn obsession that pushes people to go places they don’t want to go. So there is a level of over-romanticism that should be curbed, especially for something as burgeoning as DeepTech.
As a Chevening student who studied briefly in London, I saw how UPI was seen as the laughingstock of all eyes. I also saw how London was really invested in an innovation program where academia and business came together, especially in the FinTech space in a sandbox environment. Could India have that kind of deep R&D support? Or is it already here? Collaboration certainly lightens the load.
“IoT and IoE are going to be huge in the future. Everything will be connected with a person being able to operate their home, their car and their phone. There would be trillions of IoT devices that control people’s lives and the world,” said Shesh.
Shrija Agrawal is a business journalist. The opinions expressed are personal
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