Startup Policy Forum lays the foundation of India’s deep-tech future with #100DesiDeepTechs

The Startup Policy Forum (SPF) announced on Thursday the launch of #100DesiDeepTechs, a multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at identifying India’s top 100 deep-tech startups. This initiative follows India's strategic and economic objectives to double the growth of homegrown deep-tech startups.

The initiative, which will be in collaboration with Startup India—DPIIT, MEITY Startup Hub and IIT Madras, aims to foster a robust policy dialogue, driving the nation’s deep-tech agenda forward. The SPF has opened applications until August 17 across India for its exclusive cohort.

Selected startups will participate in closed-door deep-tech dialogues, engaging with policymakers, investors, industry leaders, sectoral regulators, and academic and research institutions. These discussions will culminate in a comprehensive policy whitepaper outlining sector-specific challenges and regulatory recommendations to strengthen India’s deep tech ecosystem.

SPF said that the whitepaper will be unveiled at the “DeepTech Baithak,” a multi-stakeholder gathering of 100 founders, investors, policymakers, and regulators. This initiative will also lay the foundation for SPF’s Centre for Deeptech Policy Research (CPDR), ensuring sustained policy dialogue and targeted interventions for the sector.

“100DesiDeepTechs is our vision to identify, mentor, and elevate India’s most promising deep-tech startups and support them with enabling policy frameworks. We are committed to supporting the government’s initiatives to strengthen the deep-tech ecosystem, including the ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development, and Innovation Scheme and the dedicated DeepTech Fund of Funds—both designed to scale R&D in critical sectors,” said Shweta Rajpal Kohli, president and CEO, Startup Policy Forum.

The initiative targets startups innovating in variegated yet critical deep-tech domains—including semiconductors, defence technologies, quantum technologies, green hydrogen, space technologies, drones and unmanned aerial systems, electric vehicles, biotechnology, robotics and autonomous systems, advanced manufacturing, and communications infrastructure.

To further support the cohort, a Mentor Board will be established, composed of founders, investors, policymakers, and technical experts, to provide strategic advice, technical expertise, and access to critical networks. SPF has enlisted several domain experts to execute the initiative and will partner with deep tech-focused investors over the next few weeks. The selection process will be led by IIT-Madras, the Policy Whitepaper will be drafted by SPF’s knowledge partner, Ikigai Law, and policy consulting firm Kaio will manage the initiative.

Having an array of homegrown deep-tech startups in India is strategically important. Deep-tech—characterised by disruptive innovation in fields such as AI, semiconductors, quantum computing, advanced materials, biotech, and space technology—can be a critical driver of national progress.

Amid the dynamic geopolitical environment, it has become crucial for India not to rely on foreign countries for foundational technologies such as AI chips, quantum encryption, or surveillance technology. Additionally, India's homegrown capabilities in AI, drones, and quantum technology have a direct impact on its ability to defend itself and manage internal security threats.

In May, the IndiaAI Mission said that it has empanelled an additional 16,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in the second round. With this latest addition, the total number of GPUs available under the mission has now reached 34,333, marking a significant step forward in India’s ambition to create a strong, self-reliant, and inclusive AI ecosystem.

Several Indian firms are powering the IndiaAI Compute initiative with top-tier AI hardware. Cyfuture India, Ishan Infotech, Netmagic, Sify, Vensysco, Locuz, and Yotta are offering a mix of Nvidia GPUs (such as H100, H200, and B200), AMD chips (MI300X and MI325X), and Intel’s Gaudi series. Vensysco and Locuz also took part in the first round.

Among those homegrown startups selected under India’s ₹10,00 crore IndiaAI Mission is the Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI. Housed under the legal entity Axonwise Private Limited, it was chosen by the government to build India’s Large Language Model (LLM), launched in May, its flagship LLM called Sarvam-M. The LLM is a 24-billion multilingual, hybrid-reasoning, text-only language model built on top of Mistral Small, a compact yet efficient open-weight AI model developed by Mistral AI, a French AI company known for its high-performance language models.

Sarvam AI co-founders Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar are both veterans of AI4Bharat at IIT Madras. In June, Sarvam launched Sarvam Samvaad, a new conversational AI platform for businesses to build, test, and deploy AI agents across 11 Indian languages. With Sarvam Samvaad, the company aims to transform the customer experience by enabling seamless interactions across various channels.