Insights · funding brief

Missions Outspend Investors 115 to 1 in Chips. In Space, Investors Lead 7 to 1.

We set ten government missions and funds against the private rounds on our record in the same sectors. In chips, quantum, critical minerals and green hydrogen, the state has committed more than every private round the sector's startups have on our record. In space, robotics, defence, health and mobility, investors have put in more. AI is close to level.

Published 06 Oct 2026

Public money per rupee chip startups raised privately: ₹115
Quantum mission per rupee raised privately: ₹7.8
IndiaAI per rupee raised privately: ₹0.94
IN-SPACe fund per rupee space startups raised: ₹0.14

Until 6 October our quantum funding list was headed by IITM CDOT Samgnya Technologies Foundation, at about $723 million. The foundation is not a startup. It is the National Quantum Mission's hub for quantum communication at IIT Madras, a not-for-profit company, and the figure was the whole mission's outlay of ₹6,003.65 crore, read from the web onto one of its four hubs. We no longer count mission bodies as funded companies, and each sector page now shows its government missions in a panel of their own.

That raised a better question than which list the hub belongs on: how large is the state's commitment in each deep-tech sector, next to what the sector's startups have raised from investors? We took ten missions and funds, each from the government's own release, and set each against the private rounds on our record for the deep-tech companies in its sector.

Public commitments against private rounds

The last column is the number to read: rupees of public commitment for every rupee of private rounds on our record. Above 1, the mission is larger; below 1, investors have put in more.

Ten government missions and funds against private rounds on our record (₹ crore; outlays as approved, private rounds converted at ₹83 to the dollar; our data, 6 October 2026)
Sector	Mission or fund (approved)	Outlay	Deep-tech companies on our list	With a private round on record	Private rounds	Outlay per ₹1 raised
Semiconductors	Semicon India (Dec 2021) and Semicon 2.0 (Jul 2026)	2,03,500	460	29	1,773	₹115
Quantum	National Quantum Mission (Apr 2023)	6,003.65	210	14	769	₹7.8
Materials	National Critical Mineral Mission (Jan 2025), government share	16,300	2,930	84	2,562	₹6.4
Energy	National Green Hydrogen Mission (Jan 2023)	19,744	3,206	147	9,666	₹2.0
Computing and AI	IndiaAI Mission (Mar 2024)	10,371.92	3,021	148	10,978	₹0.94
Mobility	PM E-DRIVE (Sep 2024)	10,900	3,224	195	23,780	₹0.46
Health and life sciences	PRIP (notified Aug 2023)	5,000	5,756	346	13,456	₹0.37
Defence	ADITI (launched Mar 2024)	750	699	26	2,061	₹0.36
Robotics and automation	NM-ICPS (Dec 2018)	3,660	4,736	207	11,925	₹0.31
Space	IN-SPACe Venture Capital Fund (Oct 2024)	1,000	630	53	7,329	₹0.14

Chips: ₹115 of public money for every rupee raised

The two semiconductor programmes together commit ₹2,03,500 crore: ₹76,000 crore approved in December 2021 and ₹1,27,500 crore for Semicon 2.0 in July 2026. The 460 deep-tech semiconductor companies on our list have 29 with a private round on record, for about ₹1,773 crore in all.

The gap says more about where chip money goes than about startups. The 2021 programme pays up to half the cost of silicon and display fabs, and supports compound semiconductor, sensor and packaging plants and chip design. Semicon 2.0 adds machines, materials and research, and its release counts 105 startups already designing chips. For a design startup the pillars that matter are design and research; most of the money is for plants, which large manufacturers build.

Quantum: small field, large mission

Quantum is the smallest sector on our list, with 210 deep-tech companies, and 14 of them have a private round on record, about ₹769 crore led by QNu Labs, QpiAI and Atomionics. The National Quantum Mission commits ₹6,003.65 crore over 2023-24 to 2030-31, nearly eight times as much.

Most of it flows through four thematic hubs: quantum computing at IISc Bengaluru, communication at IIT Madras with C-DOT, sensing and metrology at IIT Bombay, and materials and devices at IIT Delhi. Each hub is run through a foundation; the communication hub is a not-for-profit company, which is how it came to look like a startup with a $723 million raise.

Minerals and hydrogen: the state is the larger backer

The National Critical Mineral Mission commits ₹16,300 crore of government money, with another ₹18,000 crore expected from public sector companies and others, which we leave out. The 2,930 deep-tech materials companies on our list have 84 with a private round on record, for ₹2,562 crore: the government share alone is over six times that. It also sets aside ₹1,500 crore to encourage recycling of critical minerals and ₹500 crore for processing parks.

The National Green Hydrogen Mission commits ₹19,744 crore to 2029-30, ₹17,490 crore of it through SIGHT incentives for electrolyser makers and green hydrogen producers, and ₹400 crore for research. That is about twice the ₹9,666 crore of private rounds on record for 147 energy companies.

AI: close to level

IndiaAI's ₹10,371.92 crore over five years is close to the ₹10,978 crore of private rounds on record for 148 AI companies. Two of its seven pillars are shared compute, planned at 10,000 or more GPUs, and Indian foundation models, both costs an AI startup would otherwise raise money to meet. Our reading is that in AI the mission works partly in place of private rounds: subsidised compute lowers what a company has to raise, rather than adding to its cap table.

Where investors lead: space, robotics, defence, health and mobility

Space is the clearest case. The IN-SPACe fund's ₹1,000 crore, to be deployed over 2025-26 to 2029-30 at ₹10-60 crore a company, expects to back about 40 startups. Space companies on our list already have ₹7,329 crore of private rounds on record across 53 companies, led by Skyroot Aerospace, Pixxel and Digantara. The fund will be one investor among many, about ₹1 for every ₹7 raised so far. ISRO's own budget is public money in space too, and is not counted here.

NM-ICPS committed ₹3,660 crore in 2018 for five years across 25 Technology Innovation Hubs in robotics, AI, IoT, data and other cyber-physical systems. Set against robotics alone it is ₹0.31 for every rupee raised privately; spread across all the fields its hubs serve, it is less.

ADITI is the scheme nearest to a startup's own funding: grants of up to ₹25 crore direct to startups, ₹750 crore in all for about 30 critical and strategic defence technologies over 2023-24 to 2025-26. Set against the ₹2,061 crore of private rounds on record for 26 defence companies, it is a third as large, a large share for a grant scheme.

PRIP's ₹5,000 crore (2023-24 to 2027-28) supports about 300 pharma and medtech projects, with up to ₹5 crore for early-stage projects of startups and MSMEs and up to ₹100 crore for later ones. Health companies on our list have ₹13,456 crore of private rounds on record across 346 companies. PM E-DRIVE's ₹10,900 crore pays incentives on electric vehicles from two-wheelers to buses, ₹2,000 crore for public chargers and ₹780 crore for testing agencies; mobility companies have ₹23,780 crore of private rounds on record.

What the comparison does and does not say

An outlay is a commitment, usually over five to eight years, and much of it is not meant for startups: fab incentives go to manufacturers, PM E-DRIVE to vehicle buyers and chargers, SIGHT to producers. The private column is every round on our record, in all years. The ratio therefore measures the scale of the state's commitment next to the private capital a sector's startups have raised. It is not a forecast of what any startup will receive.

Each mission is set against one sector, its closest fit. Several reach further: NM-ICPS and IndiaAI overlap, critical minerals touch energy storage, and the quantum mission's hubs work with communications companies.

How we counted

Deep-tech companies are Startup India-recognised companies with a yes or maybe deep-tech verdict in our data, by our primary sector tag, as shown on each sector page. Private rounds are the verified rounds on our funding record for those companies, in all years, excluding grants, RDI Fund rounds and mission or not-for-profit bodies. Where we hold both a company's estimated total and its individual rounds, we take the larger figure rather than adding them. Dollar amounts are converted at ₹83.

We leave out four single figures of $450 million or more that are not a closed round by an Indian startup: a listed company's board approval to raise up to ₹4,500 crore, a US company's total, a blockchain network's 2022 total, and a $1 billion round we have not been able to confirm. Mission figures are as the government published them; for the critical mineral mission we use only the government's ₹16,300 crore, and the two semiconductor programmes are added together.

In our data

Startups

QNu Labs QpiAI Atomionics Skyroot Aerospace Pixxel Digantara

Sectors

Semiconductors Quantum Materials & Nanotech Energy Computing & AI Mobility & Transport Health & Life Sciences Defence & Security Robotics & Industrial Automation Space

Sources

This briefing is AI-generated from Deeptech Navigator's patent and startup data and lightly reviewed before publishing. Treat it as a starting point, not professional advice - figures are directional, so verify before relying on any number. The platform takes no responsibility for decisions made on it.

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