GenAI startups in India surge 2.8X, patents up 1.7X

Bengaluru: Generative AI startup ecosystem in the country is now witnessing rapid growth, as over the past one year alone, the total number of GenAI startups has surged 2.8X, with patents rising 1.7X, according to the latest findings from the Nasscom GenAI startup landscape report 2025, released on Thursday.

Currently, there are over 890 startups with application-focused ventures making up over 83% of the landscape.

Agentic AI is emerging as a new frontier, where startups are building model infrastructure, orchestration layers, and workflow automation tools that could fundamentally reshape enterprise workflows.

However, the findings further adds that despite a 30% year-on-year increase in total funding to $990 million in H1 of CY2025. India lags significantly behind global peers. Early-stage funding remains the primary source of capital as late-stage investments continue to shrink, constrained by a risk-averse investment culture and infrastructure challenges such as high compute costs.

Rajesh Nambiar, President, Nasscom said, “GenAI startups have the potential to shape the future of AI innovation for emerging markets and beyond. The next leap will depend on how effectively the ecosystem can come together to unlock capital, scale compute access, and nurture world-class talent. With collective action, India can transform its GenAI momentum into a lasting global leadership position, creating AI solutions that are trusted, inclusive, and transformative for billions worldwide.”

As enterprises progress from experimentation to scaled GenAI deployment, demand is rapidly shifting from core models to orchestration and infrastructure layers that power agentic workflows, an area where Indian startups can establish global leadership by building agent-as-a service stacks integrating orchestration, hybrid compute, and open-model tuning, the findings added.