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Funding in Indian genAI startups surge sixfold in Jul-Sep quarter
The gen AI sector also saw an increase in the number of partnerships, which grew by 25% on a quarterly basis
Funding in Indian generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) startups saw a sixfold quarter-on-quarter jump in the July-to-September quarter to about $51 million, driven by business-to-business and agentic AI startups, a Nasscom report said on Monday.
The number of funding rounds rose, with the quarter registering a record 20 rounds after two back-to-back slow quarters.
In comparison, funding in gen AI startups globally saw a 2.3 times quarter-on-quarter decline to about $4 billion, Nasscom’s Generative AI Tracker report, which was released on Monday, showed.
The number of funding rounds, however, grew with a record 206 rounds registered in the September quarter, the report showed.
Four unicorns–Sakana, Codeium, Harvey, and Magic AI–emerged during the quarter, and accounted for about 20% of total funding. Unicorns are startups valued at $1 billion or more,
In India, early-stage investments made up 77% of funding rounds.
Key players such as Nurix AI, Dashtoon, and Mihup led funding rounds with solutions across workflow management, digital comic creation, and conversational analytics. Angel and seed funding rounds were capped at $12.5 million, according to the report.
The gen AI sector also witnessed an increase in the number of partnerships, which grew by 25% on a quarterly basis.
These focused on product enhancements, joint go-to-market strategies, and skilling initiatives.
“Providers are transitioning from building use cases to converting active proofs of concept into production-ready solutions. The increasing maturity of the Indian gen AI ecosystem reflects its transition from exploratory use cases to scalable, production-ready solutions,” Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president and chief strategy officer at Nasscom, said.
The report said revenue realization from gen AI applications is on the rise, as Accenture recorded $3 billion in bookings, with $1 billion already realized, while Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) secured $1.5 billion in gen AI-driven projects.