Synopsis
The momentum continues from last year, when investments in agentic AI startups nearly doubled to $144 million from $75 million in 2024, show data from Venture Intelligence. They raised $121 million in 2023.Listen to this article in summarized format
The momentum continues from last year, when investments in agentic AI startups nearly doubled to $144 million from $75 million in 2024, show data from Venture Intelligence. They raised $121 million in 2023.
According to data from Tracxn, more than 100 agentic AI startups were founded in India since 2023.
Startups such as Confido Health and Runable raised upwards of $10 million each from Z47 and Nexus Venture Partners, respectively, according to three people aware of the matter. Gushwork, TraqCheck and NudgeBee were among others that have raised funds early this year.
Clarity on utility
Multiple founders told ET that enterprises are now open to piloting and scaling up agentic AI operations, as there is clarity on what the agents can do for their workflow. This is resulting in improved quality of revenue for startups. Emergent, an AI coding agent, crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue within a short time since the launch of the platform. Attentive AI, an AI-powered construction platform, reached $10 million in a couple of years. The revenue performance is helping attract investors. A Bengaluru-based investor, who is investing in agentic startups, said he is seeing the quality of revenue improve for Indian startups, even as adoption increases. "Indian startups are working with large enterprises in the US which are sustainable," he said. However, it is not without challenges.
Fund crunch in growth stage
A large portion of startup funding is in early stages, and India has yet to see growth-stage investments at scale when it comes to AI. Competition is also intense and while enterprises are increasingly adopting AI, there are still concerns associated with risks agentic AI systems pose.
