February 21, 2026
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General Catalyst to invest $5 billion in India’s startup ecosystem over 5 years

  • February 20, 2026
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Normal Catalyst has introduced plans to speculate $5 billion in India over the following 5 years, marking one of many largest capital commitments by a worldwide enterprise agency

General Catalyst to invest  billion in India’s startup ecosystem over 5 years


Normal Catalyst has introduced plans to speculate $5 billion in India over the following 5 years, marking one of many largest capital commitments by a worldwide enterprise agency to the nation’s startup ecosystem.

The announcement was made on the India AI Impression Summit 2026 in New Delhi.

The agency stated the capital will probably be deployed throughout seed to growth-stage startups, with a deal with platform-defining corporations in synthetic intelligence, healthcare, defence know-how, fintech and client know-how. The dedication represents a pointy improve from the $500 million to $1 billion it had beforehand earmarked for India.

Normal Catalyst, which manages greater than $43 billion in property underneath administration, expanded its India presence in 2024 by a merger with Delhi NCR-based Enterprise Freeway. Following the merger, it raised $8 billion in contemporary capital for its Fund XII to again seed and growth-stage startups globally.

“India will construct the following technology of worldwide platform corporations,” Hemant Taneja, CEO of Normal Catalyst, stated on the summit, including that Indian founders are uniquely positioned to develop know-how for markets serving huge populations.

Neeraj Arora, CEO for India, the Center East and North Africa at Normal Catalyst, stated the brand new dedication would enable the agency to function at a distinct scale in India and assist corporations from early stage by to the general public markets.

Concentrate on large-scale AI deployment

The funding comes at a time when India is positioning itself as a serious vacation spot for AI capital. Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that India is about to draw greater than $200 billion in investments in the direction of AI over the following two years.

Normal Catalyst stated it sees India’s largest AI alternative not in constructing frontier fashions however in large-scale real-world deployment. The agency cited the nation’s government-built digital public infrastructure, huge home market and deep providers expertise pool as structural benefits.

By means of the Normal Catalyst Institute, the agency has additionally been working to construct government-industry partnerships in India and is creating a framework to speed up AI adoption throughout precedence sectors, with an goal to transform pilot tasks into full-scale deployments.

Qualcomm stated it plans to speculate $150 million in India’s know-how and AI startup ecosystem by Qualcomm Ventures. The Ministry of Electronics and Info Know-how and the Indian Enterprise and Alternate Capital Affiliation mobilised Rs 500 crore in enterprise capital commitments for deployable AI options throughout enterprise and public-impact sectors.

On the infrastructure entrance, Adani Enterprises stated it plans to speculate about $100 billion to construct renewable energy-powered AI-ready knowledge centres by 2035. Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani stated Jio Platforms, together with Reliance, will make investments Rs 10 lakh crore in AI over the following seven years.