Venture Catalyst
From lab notebook
to industry champion.
Tech Catalyst's startup accelerator turns deep-tech ideas — emerging from our Centre of Excellence — into Series-A-ready ventures. Lab access. Pilot customers. Seed capital. Operating mentors. End to end.
01 — Why Tech Catalyst
We don't just write cheques.
We build with you.
Tech Catalyst Capital is wired into the same Centre of Excellence that trains India's deep-tech workforce. Founders get production-grade lab access, anchor pilots, and a hands-on operating bench — long before a term-sheet conversation.
Our CoE as your sandbox
Run pilots inside instrumented labs — semis, EV, AI, agri, medtech and more — without burning founder capital on capex.
Operating mentors
Pair with operators who've shipped products at L&T, Tata Elxsi, Wipro, ISRO, IIT, and global silicon majors.
Patient capital
Seed cheques up to ₹5 Cr, milestone-based, with follow-on syndicates ready when product-market fit lands.
02 — The 18-month journey
Four phases.
One unfair advantage.
Spark
Weeks 0 – 4
- Problem-statement validation with CoE mentors
- Tech-stack & IP scoping
- Founder fit + co-founder match-making
Build
Months 1 – 4
- MVP build inside the ACIT lab network
- Industry pilots with anchor partners
- Regulatory & standards alignment (BIS, MeitY, AICTE)
Capital
Months 4 – 8
- Seed cheques from Tech Catalyst Capital
- Grant-in-aid & soft-loan introductions
- Investor-ready data-room & narrative coaching
Scale
Months 8 – 18
- Go-to-market with SkillConnect placements
- Channel partnerships across 12 countries
- Series-A bridge with syndicate of co-investors
03 — Where we invest
Ten deep-tech
investment themes.
We follow the laboratories. Every theme below is anchored by a working CoE, an industry advisory board and a curriculum on our LMS, so founders inherit customers, talent and tooling from day one.
SMPL
Semiconductor & Microelectronics Packaging Lab
Fab-light, packaging, chiplets
READ
Reverse Engineering, ADAS & Digital Twin Lab
Reverse engineering, ADAS, digital twin
EVFM
Electric Vehicle & Future Mobility Lab
Battery, charging, BMS, ADAS
MEDL
MedTech Engineering & Design Lab
Devices, diagnostics, digital health
SMIA
Smart Manufacturing & Industrial Automation Lab
Industry 4.0, robotics, twin
AIOF
AI Infrastructure Hardware & Optical Fabrics Lab
Edge, accelerators, MLOps
CIDSA
AI-Enabled Agri Tech Lab
Sustainable, precision, drones
ESDM
Electronics System Design & Manufacturing Lab
PCB, modules, contract mfg
3CI
Cybersecurity, Cloud & Critical Infrastructure Lab
Critical infra, OT security
IoT-CPS
IoT & Cyber-Physical Systems Lab
Sensors, edge, cyber-physical systems
Plug into the cohort
Ready to build the next deep-tech champion out of India?
Applications for the next Venture Catalyst cohort are open. We meet founders every Friday at our Pune HQ and on demand in Bengaluru.