What Unicorn India Ventures’ INR 1,200 Cr Fund Signals for Deeptech

India’s venture capital narrative is quietly changing. After more than a decade dominated by consumer internet, SaaS, and fintech, investors are beginning to recalibrate expectations around timelines, capital intensity, and enterprise participation. The final close of Unicorn India Ventures’ third fund at INR 1,200 crore, above its original target, offers a window into that shift.

Rather than signalling a return to aggressive cheque-writing, the fund structure points to a more deliberate approach. With a majority of capital reserved for follow-on rounds and a sharper focus on semiconductors, quantum sensing, defence tech, and spacetech, the strategy reflects growing comfort with long gestation cycles and complex deployment paths.

In this interaction with CiOL, Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, explains why deeptech is now drawing sustained institutional interest, how patient capital is enabling enterprise-scale outcomes, and where India-built IP could begin to influence global supply chains.

Interview Excerpts:

The larger message is that the tech ecosystem in India is evolving and growing very fast.

The first wave of startups that launched were in the area of consumer Internet, followed by software and sales companies. Now, as the ecosystem matures and has seen multiple business cycles, the time is right for deep tech. Deep tech is of national priority and importance, as in the future all nations of skill will need to develop their own thesis around AI, data sovereignty, semiconductor and rates, and space/defence technologies.

What does the oversubscription of a deeptech-focused fund indicate about where institutional and enterprise confidence is moving in India today?

There is no doubt that there is a deep interest within the Indian and overseas markets in the emerging deep tech ecosystem in India. The world has been amazed by some of the success stories from India achieved at a fraction of the costs. The Chandrayaan mission cost about $150 million, which is less than the budget of a Hollywood film. All of this has attracted investors throughout the world looking at the Indian deep tech ecosystem. Even within India, the launch of the RDI fund and other FoFs has been able to mobilise private capital towards a steep deck. Not just accessibility to other funds, but these funds are also now long-term and patient capital funds. These funds tend to have a holding power of 10 to 12 years, giving enough time for start-ups to bloom.

With 75% of the fund reserved for follow-on rounds, how critical is patient capital in converting deeptech pilots into enterprise-scale deployments?

This is the biggest change that has happened in the mindset of the investors. When we launched our first fund in 2015, even a seven-year-old fund was treated as a long gestation period. Now investors are talking of 10+2-year funds, giving enough time and patient capital for the companies to grow. This fundamental shift, along with an active role of academia within the start-up environment, is what will herald the growth of deep tech in India.

Are Indian enterprises now ready to act as design partners and early adopters for spacetech, defensetech, and core deeptech startups?

This is a very interesting question. As we see it today, even before the Indian corporate and enterprise sectors, it is the government which is becoming the first buyer in defence and space tech. A large number of our portfolio companies have the government as the first buyer, but soon after the proof of concept and the first commercial installations are done, the private players have started to get into play as well. We have an investment in the area of underwater drones. The first client was the Indian Navy, but very soon the company started supplying to a large number of commercial enterprises within the oil and gas space. This is a story we are seeing often being repeated one after another.

Over the next 3-5 years, where do you see India-built deeptech IP making the biggest impact on global enterprise supply chains?

It is still early days for this. But we can surely start seeing the impact of the Indian deep tech in the global supply chain, especially in the semiconductor industry. One of the most successful schemes of the government has been the DLI scheme, which is basically enabling a large number of semiconductor design companies to come into the fold. Some of these companies, over a period of time, will defray the need for Indian defence and encourage corporates to look towards the international players in semiconductors. But still it is very early days, and for a significant impact to come, it will take 5 to 7 years at least.

We are quite excited for the Indian deep tech start of the ecosystem. We see some of the macro factors which have come together and will invariably lead to the growth of the ecosystem. The China +1 strategy and the strong success of Make in India have provided the baseline support for the industry. The government push through the DLI and other schemes has led to support for the start-ups. Then the RDI fund and other similar funding sources have provided the seed capital required for patient growth of these companies.

He further added, The patent framework has been very, very well established, and all the educational institutions are now being encouraged to commercialise the patent.' The final push in this space for which I am most excited about is the role of academia. Finally, academia and start-ups, like in the US and the other parts of the western world, are starting to come together and make a significant impact within the large start-up space. The IIT Madras Unicorn India Ventures Deep Tech Fund One is a testimony to that effect.