India startup leaders pitch AI collaboration push to UK minister Kanishka Narayan in Cambridge

India’s startup leaders met UK Minister for AI and Online Safety Kanishka Narayan in Cambridge on Tuesday, using a punting session on the River Cam to push the case for deeper AI and technology collaboration between the two countries. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Cambridge India Business Dialogue, as part of Startup Policy Forum’s UK Startup Safari delegation.

Narayan said closer cooperation between the two startup ecosystems could create jobs and opportunities in both countries. “Working side by side, we’re setting sail on a shared future of growth, where ideas, expertise and ambition flow freely between our countries,” he said.

The delegation framed the conversation around the broader India-UK innovation corridor, with founders sharing their own growth journeys and discussing the pace of innovation in India. The release said the exchange comes at a pivotal moment after the India-UK Free Trade Agreement, which is expected to lift bilateral trade by £25.5 billion annually in the long run.

Policy push

Shweta Rajpal Kohli, president and CEO of Startup Policy Forum, said the Cambridge setting was symbolic for a conversation about the future of AI. “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,” she said.

She added that the delegation believes the India-UK innovation corridor is ready to move beyond discussion. “This Startup Safari has reinforced our conviction that the India-UK innovation corridor is ready to move from conversation to action,” Kohli said. “SPF looks forward to deepening this partnership and building a strong bridge between India and the UK’s tech and policy ecosystems.”

In a media statement, the Startup Policy Forum said it represents more than 75 companies with a combined valuation of about $100 billion across fintech, deeptech, consumer internet and enterprise software. The delegation included founders and senior executives from Fam, BharatPe, OTPLess, SQ1 Security, FlexiLoans, Cashfree Payments, PRISM, Spring Marketing Capital, Rebalance, Future+ and Aegion, among others.

The week-long UK visit went beyond Cambridge. Delegates were welcomed at the London Stock Exchange, met representatives at the UK Parliament, and held meetings with Indian High Commissioner Periasamy Kumaran and Minister (Economic) Nidhi Mani Tripathi, according to the statement.

The group also met frontier AI companies including Graphcore, Beamery, Brahma AI and Nothing, with discussions focused on where cutting-edge innovation is taking shape outside Silicon Valley and what a real India-UK AI collaboration corridor could look like.