GenAi Startup Funding Up 3X In H2FY25

Majority funding garnered by applications startups in legal, healthcare, cloud-native AI PaaS, and agentic AI

FinTech BizNews Service

Mumbai, May 19, 2025: Nasscom’s third edition of its Generative AI Tracker: Tech Industry Activity offers a comprehensive analysis of global and India trends that shaped GenAI development and adoption in H2FY25. Focus is on the increased GenAI startup funding, globally, and in India, as well as the increase in GenAI and agentic AI focused offerings by the Indian tech industry. The report also succinctly captures major sovereign AI developments across the world in H2FY25. 

Key Highlights

Global H2FY25 GenAI Trends

• 3.7X increase in global GenAI startup funding in H2FY25 over H1, and 1.2X rise in funding rounds, making H2 the highest ever in both funding value and rounds since Nov. 2022.
• 6 new unicorns; however, 75% funding garnered by just three firms – OpenAI, xAI, and Anthropic – in an insatiable global push for bigger, better LLMs, aside of DeepSeek’s cost-performance breakthroughs.
• Record deals over $150 Mn as domain-specific GenAI models and applications get big-ticket funding.
• 8-9 major global regions announced policies and/or partnerships to advance national AI missions.

India H2FY25 GenAI Trends

• ~3X growth in GenAI startup funding in India during H2FY25, although funding rounds clocked a 27% decline from H1.
• Majority funding garnered by applications startups in legal, healthcare, cloud-native AI PaaS, and agentic AI.
• 2X growth in startups getting $1 Mn+ funding, compared with H1, however, larger ticket size funding evades Indian GenAI landscape.
• Nearly 25% of the funding provided to startups building AI agents specific to sales, legal contracting, and cross-functional workflows.

Indian Tech Industry GenAI Activity in H2FY25

• Strong rebound in H2, as the industry pushes on the pedal across all activities – partnerships, new launches, and workforce skilling
• Record year FY25, particularly H2, in expanding /establishing strategic market access and/or development partnerships
• Co-creation with clients through an advisory-to-implementation engagement approach was distinct.
• H2FY25 was also a strong period for new products, CoEs, or platform launch announcements

Focus: Agentic AI

• While global funding value in agentic AI startups was nascent, focus on data readiness, architecture, and platform-centric approach rising quickly.
• Nearly 25% of Indian GenAI startup funding went into agentic AI startups focusing on workflow automation, ITSM.
• Tech industry in India at the forefront of agentic AI readiness – from vertical solutions, say in legal or pharmacovigilance processes, to multiple agentic AI use cases through platforms.