New Delhi, Delhi, 8th of October, 2026 : The Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) today announced a collaboration with Headstart Network Foundation to strengthen engagement with India’s DeepTech founder ecosystem. As part of the collaboration, IVCA will join Bharat Pitchathon 2026 as a co-host and launch IVCA Bharat DeepTech Startups: National Pulse — a national, founder-led intelligence initiative designed to capture the experiences, challenges and priorities shaping DeepTech entrepreneurship across India.
(Left to Right): Shri Priyank Kharge, Hon’ble Minister for Home Affairs, Information Technology, Biotechnology and E-Governance, Government of Karnataka; Rajat Tandon, President, IVCA; Shri Sharath Kumar Bache Gowda, Chairman, KEONICS, and MLA, Hosakote; and Gautham Sivaramakrishnan, Director, Headstart Network Foundation.
The collaboration comes as India’s DeepTech ecosystem enters a critical phase of scale across semiconductors, artificial intelligence, space, defence, biotechnology, quantum and clean energy. As global attention increasingly turns towards India for technology and engineering talent, the expansion of Global Capability Centres (GCCs), indigenous technology companies and science-led startups is further strengthening the country’s role as a base for R&D, technology development and innovation. Policy recognition is also evolving to reflect the longer development cycles and distinct needs of science-led ventures.
IVCA’s Bharat DeepTech Report 2026 mapped capital flows across the sector, finding that Indian DeepTech attracted $11.4 billion in cumulative venture capital funding across 957 deals between 2015 and 2026 YTD, with 2025 recording the highest annual funding at $2.96 billion. Building on this investment-led view, the National Pulse will add a founder-led lens, capturing perspectives from established metropolitan hubs as well as Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and emerging innovation clusters that remain underrepresented in ecosystem data and conversations.
Through Headstart’s grassroots network across 30+ cities and IVCA’s engagement across private capital, industry, government and policy, the National Pulse will bring together credible data, founder sentiment, insights, statistics and stories from across India. The objective is to build a more representative picture of who is building DeepTech, where innovation is emerging, what founders need to scale, and how those requirements vary across regions – creating a stronger evidence base for investors, policymakers, corporates and ecosystem institutions.
Rajat Tandon, President, IVCA, said, “India’s DeepTech opportunity will be built not only in our largest startup hubs, but increasingly across the hinterlands of the country. By joining Bharat Pitchathon 2026 as a co-host, IVCA intends to bring its investor network closer to founders across India – creating more opportunities for investor-founder engagement, mentorship and market access, while helping build a stronger pipeline of investable DeepTech companies from beyond the metros. This engagement also gives us an opportunity to listen systematically to founders across the country. Through IVCA Bharat DeepTech Startups: National Pulse, we want to capture their experiences, priorities and challenges – from capital and infrastructure to commercialisation, talent, customers and policy – and translate these insights into a stronger evidence base for investors, industry and policymakers. Ultimately, the objective is to connect more founders with capital and networks while ensuring that the next generation of India’s DeepTech companies can emerge from every part of the country.”
Founder inputs for the National Pulse will be gathered alongside Bharat Pitchathon 2026 and through IVCA and Headstart’s wider ecosystem networks, enabling participation from established metropolitan hubs, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, and emerging innovation clusters across the country.
The initiative will examine who is building DeepTech in India, where innovation is emerging, how companies are progressing from research and technology development to market adoption, and where founders continue to encounter barriers to capital, infrastructure, customers, talent and policy support.
Highlighting the importance of capturing perspectives from founders beyond India’s traditional startup hubs, Gautham Sivaramakrishnan, Director, Headstart Network Foundation, said “Some of India’s most promising early-stage DeepTech startups originate far beyond the metro cities. Headstart has consistently championed non-metro founders in their earliest days, from Sunfox in Dehradun and BonV in Bhubaneswar to hundreds of others who initially struggled with access to venture capital, but have gone on to raise hundreds of crores. These founders possess world-class talent and the ambition to build at scale, yet they face persistent visibility gaps with investors centered in cities like Mumbai, Gurugram, and Bengaluru. Bharat Pitchathon has always bridged this divide by unearthing promising startups across sectors nationwide. Partnering with IVCA this year enables us to double down specifically on DeepTech and integrate regional founder realities directly into the national narrative through IVCA’s Bharat DeepTech Startups: National Pulse”
It will also capture founder sentiment, near-term priorities, policy asks and founder stories, while identifying regional strengths and ecosystem gaps across participating states.
These insights will feed into the first IVCA Bharat DeepTech Startups: National Pulse Report, to be launched at the Bharat DeepTech Summit 2027, and establish a recurring founder-led intelligence layer for investor, industry and policy conversations.
The collaboration brings together IVCA’s convening role across investors, industry and government with Headstart’s grassroots founder & incubator network across 30+ cities. Together, the two organisations will use Bharat Pitchathon 2026 as a national platform to surface founder perspectives, strengthen connections between DeepTech companies and the capital ecosystem, and build a more representative view of opportunities and bottlenecks across India’s emerging innovation hubs. IVCA will anchor the research and industry engagement for the National Pulse, while Headstart will support founder outreach and ecosystem participation through its city network.
About IVCA
The Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) is a not-for-profit, apex industry body promoting the alternate capital industry and fostering a vibrant investing ecosystem in India. IVCA is committed to supporting the ecosystem by facilitating advocacy discussions with the Government of India, policymakers, and regulators, resulting in the rise of entrepreneurial activity, innovation, and job creation in India and contributing towards the development of India as a leading fund management hub. IVCA represents 500+ funds with a combined AUM of over $350 billion. Our members are the most active domestic and global VCs, PEs, funds for infrastructure, real estate, credit funds, limited partners, investment companies, family offices, corporate VCs, and knowledge partners. These funds invest in emerging companies, venture growth, buyout, special situations, distressed assets, and credit and venture debt, among others.
About Headstart Network Foundation:
Founded in 2007, Headstart Network Foundation is one of India’s largest and oldest volunteer-driven, grassroots startup ecosystems. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Headstart empowers early-stage entrepreneurs across 30+ cities through founder mentorship, investor access, incubator enablement, and policy advocacy. Driven by a robust network of volunteers, founders, investors, corporate leaders, and ecosystem enablers, the foundation has supported 15,000+ ventures, which have contributed to the creation of 4 lakh jobs and ₹42,000+ crore in economic value.
Beyond grassroots engagement, Headstart collaborates closely with government bodies on startup policy development and execution, while helping establish, scale, and turn around hundreds of incubators nationwide. Through flagship initiatives such as Startup Saturday, Kickstart, Headstart Boosters, WomenEntrepreneurs@Headstart, Bharat Pitchathon, SlushD and HSX, the network has hosted over 2,500 events, workshops and sessions to support aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs.
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