Nasscom, Indian Information Technology industry’s premier body, has unveiled its inaugural Generative AI Foundry program, announcing the selection of 26 innovative startups.
This 12-month initiative, backed by over 30 prominent organizations from the industry and investor community, will provide a substantial boost to the selected startups, with investment commitments totaling up to $25 million.
Nasscom shared that investors participating in the program would offer various forms of support to catalyze growth and innovation within the selected startups. The overarching goal of the initiative is to unlock the full potential of generative AI startups in India, with the aim of making an impact on the global stage. The program will necessitate rigorous assessment of sustainable whitespace opportunities in various sectors and innovative strategies to attract patient capital while facilitating scalable compute capabilities.
The 26 startups selected for the program were chosen from a pool of over 70 applicants. The average startup in this cohort is approximately two years old and has already raised an impressive half a million dollars from institutional investors.
These startups offer solutions that cover a wide spectrum of generative AI capabilities, including text, audio, code, video/image, and multimodal outputs, with strong use cases across retail, media and entertainment, banking and financial services, and various enterprise functions.
Several esteemed organizations have joined forces with Nasscom to make this program a reality, including Anthill Ventures, Broadridge, Capgemini, Centific, Chiratae Ventures, Cigniti, eClerx, Endiya Partners, GitHub, Jio GenNext, MathWorks, Microsoft, Pavestone VC, Premji Invest, Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore (SRI-B), Silverneedle Ventures, Sutherland, and _VOIS (Vodafone Intelligent Solutions).
The initial six months of the program will involve intensive boot camps and active mentoring sessions, conducted by industry experts and investor mentors. The startups will also gain access to cutting-edge technology stacks and GPU compute nodes, providing them with the tools to accelerate their AI projects.
The Telangana government has come on board as the state partner for the ‘Generative AI Foundry’ program, offering startups the opportunity to work on impactful B2G (business-to-government) use cases, which can potentially transform public service delivery.
The Indian Generative AI landscape has been steadily growing, with over 60 startups dedicated to offering innovative solutions and services across various industry verticals. More than $590 million in funding has already flowed into this space, with 2022 being a standout year for significant funding inflow, as highlighted by Nasscom.
This initiative by Debjani Ghosh, President of Nasscom, promises to be a game-changer for India’s AI startup ecosystem, propelling innovation and further establishing the country as a global tech hub.
