Avaana Capital’s Anjali Bansal said Indian deeptech must turn intellectual property into industrial scale. She pointed to Skyroot’s rocket launch and SEDEMAC’s IPO as signs of growth. “These companies demonstrate the potential to build frontier technologies in India for markets around the world,” she said, highlighting six key sectors for future success.
Indian deeptech must turn IP into industrial scale, Avaana Capital's Anjali Bansal said, pointing to Skyroot's Vikram-1 orbital launch, SEDEMAC's IPO and India's ₹1 lakh crore RDI Scheme.
By CNBCTV18.com
Deeptech must turn IP into industrial scale, Avaana Capital's Founding Partner Anjali Bansal said, citing Skyroot, Agnikul, SEDEMAC and the ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme as examples of the ecosystem’s potential.
Indian deeptech startups are increasingly developing proprietary technologies for global markets, Bansal told CNBCTV18. She cited Skyroot, which launched India’s first privately developed rocket, with a significant share of expected demand from international customers.
She also pointed to Agnikul, which has demonstrated globally differentiated propulsion technology, with commercial customers across Europe, Australia, Japan and Singapore.
“These companies demonstrate the potential to build frontier technologies in India for markets around the world,” Bansal said.
She said India's opportunity over the coming decade is to “translate scientific excellence into industrial scale and proprietary IP into global technology leadership”, creating companies that originate in India, serve global markets and build capabilities of strategic importance.
Bansal identified six areas with significant potential: energy and power systems; advanced manufacturing and supply chains; semiconductors and electronics; biotechnology and advanced materials; space and defence; and AI applied to the physical economy.
Technology enters the physical economy
Bansal said Avaana is focused on technology moving deeper into the physical economy. Energy systems are becoming more distributed, intelligent and flexible, creating opportunities in storage, power electronics, distributed generation, grid technologies and intelligent energy management.
Biotechnology is creating new production pathways across materials, chemicals, food and industrial inputs. AI will accelerate these shifts through robotics and Physical AI, energy optimisation, industrial automation, materials discovery and supply-chain intelligence.
AI reality check
Bansal said Avaana evaluates AI companies through the same lens as a technology business: “does the technology solve an important problem materially better, faster or more efficiently?”
She highlighted Enlite, whose AI-led operating system optimises building operations, reduces energy consumption and improves asset performance. Its solutions are deployed across 50M+ sq ft of real estate.
AmpereHour’s AI-led Energy Management System optimises battery storage and distributed energy assets through real-time control algorithms. Intello Labs uses Physical AI and computer vision to improve standardisation and traceability across agricultural value chains. Dreamfly Innovations develops high-performance battery systems for drones and aerospace, focused on flight time, safety and operational efficiency.
“Defensibility and durable competitive advantage remains critical,” Bansal said, pointing to proprietary data, domain expertise, differentiated IP and deep systems integration.
From prototype to scale
India’s venture ecosystem is maturing to support deeptech’s longer gestation periods and technology risk, Bansal said, but venture capital is only one part of the financing architecture.
Grants and catalytic capital can support research and early validation; venture capital can fund technology development and early commercialisation; growth equity and strategic capital can support market expansion and manufacturing scale-up; while working capital, equipment finance and debt become important as companies fulfil commercial orders.
She pointed to the ₹1 lakh crore RDI Scheme, which is catalysing private capital towards higher-TRL innovation, and the deeptech Fund of Funds, which is expanding risk capital. The opportunity, she said, is to build “a full-spectrum capital architecture”.
Friction often sits at the transitions from research to IP, IP to prototype, prototype to pilot, pilot to commercial production and production to global scale. Shared pilot, testing and certification infrastructure, technology-transfer frameworks and greater movement of people, ideas and IP between academia and industry can help.
Early commercial demand is also important. The first meaningful customer can validate the technology, inform production planning and create evidence of commercial traction. Large Indian corporations can support startups through paid pilots, strategic sourcing and offtake commitments.
Exits and expansion beyond metros
Bansal cited SEDEMAC’s IPO as a “definitive proof point” of an Indian deeptech company translating proprietary technology, commercial scale and sustained execution into public market liquidity. Strategic M&A could also become increasingly relevant as corporations seek differentiated IP, products and capabilities.
Deeptech companies can be built outside hubs such as Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR because India’s scientific capability is distributed across IITs, IISc, IISERs, CSIR laboratories, universities and specialised research institutions.
She cited GreenGrahi in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, which uses insect biotechnology to convert agricultural and food residues into high-value ingredients for animal and plant nutrition. Eeki, founded in Kota, Rajasthan, has developed proprietary soil-less growing technology and IoT-enabled farms.
Bansal said the opportunity rests on the convergence of scientific capability, entrepreneurial ambition, enabling policy, industry demand and capital.