Nasscom to nurture 37 homegrown GenAI startups in 2nd cohort

IT industry’s apex body Nasscom on Thursday announced the selection of 37 Generative AI (GenAI) startups and 30 per cent of them have women in their founding teams.

The startups, which include Fluid AI, Sivi, DaveAI, OnFinance and others, have been chosen for the second cohort of the Nasscom’s ‘Generative AI Foundry’ programme.

The average startup in the cohort is two-year-old and has already raised $750,000 from institutional investors.

“Homegrown Generative AI startups are revolutionising industries not only in India but for the world, showcasing India’s rapidly growing expertise in AI on the global stage,” said Ankit Bose, Head of AI, Nasscom.

Chosen from a pool of more than 130 applicants, these startups are pushing the boundaries of GenAI in India. They offer solutions that generate text, audio, code, video/image, and multimodal output with strong use cases for retail, banking and financial services, healthcare and life sciences, and for various functions of the enterprise.

The ‘Generative AI Foundry’ programme, launched in October 2023, has been actively supporting 26 startups. The programme has partnered nearly 60 enterprises and investors.

The programme has seen its business grow nearly twice and headcount by 50 per cent, collectively raising $15 million from institutional investors, and they poised to raise over $2 million on an average.

With over 40 patents filed and several underway, the startups are generating significant intellectual property from India, said Nasscom.

More than 200 tech startups are actively innovating and offering Generative AI solutions and services to their customers spread across various industry verticals.

As per a recent nasscom-Zinnov report, 2023 saw over $500 million in deeptech funding.

However, more concerted efforts to improve collaborative innovation between startups and industry, increasing access to affordable GPUs, the need for patient capital, strong emphasis on applied research, and continuing to building a competent talent pipeline will be the key to augment the growth of the Gen AI start-up ecosystem in India, said the industry body.