Indian AI Startups

Enabling India's AI startup ecosystem for global success

Written by

@Tanvi Lall⁠

Focus area rationale

Indian AI startups have the potential to become global leaders in AI innovation and application, but they face several key challenges that need to be addressed to realise this potential fully. Despite having the second-highest number of software developers globally and the second-largest number of AI GitHub repositories, there are significant gaps that must be bridged.

Key Issues:

Gap in continuous learning and community engagement within the AI industry: While India leads in the number of new developers added annually, there is a pressing need for continuous learning and upskilling to ensure these developers can meet the demands of advanced AI projects.

Access to foundation infrastructure and resources: AI startups require robust infrastructure and resources, including high-quality compute capacity, to develop and scale their products efficiently.

Understanding funding opportunities available to them: Securing adequate funding for research, development, and scaling operations is a major hurdle. Access to capital is crucial for startups to innovate and grow.

Establishing a customer base early: Building a strong customer base is essential for validating and sustaining products. Startups need to effectively target both domestic and international markets.

Keeping up with the evolving regulatory and compliance requirements: Navigating the complex regulatory landscape and ensuring compliance with local and international standards can be daunting for startups.

Our Intervention:

To address these challenges and harness India's vast potential in AI, people+ai focuses on:

Providing spaces for advanced learning opportunities:

Hosting events focused on skills development, sharing domain knowledge, expert talks, and in-person community meetups is crucial for fostering a thriving and innovative community. These events provide opportunities for attendees to learn new skills and stay updated with industry advancements, gain valuable insights from industry leaders, and apply theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios.

Additionally, they facilitate networking and collaboration, helping individuals build professional relationships that can lead to new opportunities and partnerships. By creating a sense of community and offering continuous engagement, these events motivate and inspire participants to pursue their goals and drive collective progress within the field.

Identifying and synthesising gaps in foundational infrastructure:

Synthesising crucial gaps emerging as Indian AI startups build production-grade products. For eg., high-quality compute infrastructure is essential for product development and innovation, Open Cloud Compute focuses on improving this need.

Building a narrative for the larger AI ecosystem to understand and potentially solve for some of these gaps

Helping startups understand funding opportunities better:

Writing knowledge pieces about venture capital for AI, helping pre-startups and startups funding better

Market development:

Helping startups find early testing grounds and build a robust customer base by connecting them with domestic and international markets, thereby validating and sustaining their products.

Regulatory support:

Providing guidance and resources to help startups navigate regulatory requirements and ensure compliance with all necessary standards.

By focusing on these areas, we aim to bridge the gaps and enable Indian AI startups to emerge as global leaders in AI innovation and application.

Current projects and ideas

By bringing together experts and enthusiasts, we aim to drive collective progress and strengthen the community's capabilities. We host events focused on skills development, sharing domain knowledge, expert talks and in-person community meetups.

We also publish thought pieces and blog posts on our website where founders, domain experts and health enthusiasts can write about their startups’ thesis, showcase their AI product portfolio and increase the knowledge pool for all.

Prioritisation for next 6-12 months

Build a knowledge repository for pre-startup and startup founders: Curate knowledge pieces that can help startup founders and new entrepreneurs understand diverse domains, attract talent, raise capital, go-to-market quicker while being compliant for their respective sector.

Build a startup directory to easily access relevant organisations for people+ai projects, events, leads etc. as well as forming networks between different startups

Feature and jointly co-create content on diverse AI startup thesis, products and services, technical know-how, market learnings for the larger India ecosystem

Focus area rationale

Current projects and ideas

Prioritisation for next 6-12 months

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