In 2025, early-stage rounds accounted for more than half of the total funding at $850 million, up from $690 million in 2024, with investors looking to back startups that can commercialise their technologies. However, initial cheques dipped to $277.4 million from $332.9 million last year.<\/p>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Deeptechfunding.jpg\")
ETtech
\n
\u201cWhile it\u2019s good that we celebrate milestones and announcements, if you look at the absolute numbers, deeptech funding is still relatively anaemic\u2013though it is improving,\u201d said Sateesh Andra, managing director, Endiya Partners. <\/p>\n
The early-stage venture capital firm, which is currently investing from its $100 million Fund III, remains focused on enterprise, frontier tech, healthcare and industrial technology. Semiconductors and spacetech emerge winners Semiconductor and chip-design startups emerged as the strongest performers in 2025, raising $191.1 million so far, compared with $41.4 million in 2024 and $71.8 million in 2023. This shift aligns with government incentives, geopolitical supply-chain disruptions and India\u2019s push to build a domestic semiconductor ecosystem.<\/p>\n Spacetech funding has also held up, with startups raising $93.7 million since the start of 2025, compared with $68.9 million in 2024 and $139.2 million in 2023. Digantara\u2019s recent $50 million round<\/a>, Agnikul\u2019s $17 million fundraising<\/a> and several other startups currently in talks to raise growth capital will help sustain investor interest, said VCs.<\/p>\n Manu Iyer, managing founder of deeptech fund Bluehill VC, said that advances in communication technologies are emerging as a key focus within spacetech. \u201cHigh-capacity satellite downlinks, combining advanced RF with laser systems and electronic warfare is becoming interesting,\u201d he said, adding that the sector\u2019s growth is driven more by global use cases than domestic timelines, allowing faster commercial traction.<\/p>\n Most deeptech ventures funds said they are evaluating more spacetech and semiconductor startups and plan to write initial cheques and participate in follow-on rounds in 2026.<\/p>\n
Murali Krishna Gunturu, a founding member of Inflexor Ventures, which is looking to close its $150 million Fund III<\/a>, said early-stage innovation will continue to drive deal flow in 2026. \u201cThe most visible shift will likely be an increase in scale-up rounds as more companies mature beyond early pilots,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Within deeptech, subsectors such as semiconductors, defence-tech, quantum and spacetech continue to attract capital, while others including energy storage, battery technologies, artificial intelligence (AI)-led infrastructure, biotech, drones and smart manufacturing are seeing investors reassess risk and long gestation periods.<\/p>\n