India has been known for its consumer tech for well over a decade, with unicorn-valued startups in ecommerce, food delivery, home services and social platforms. But the Indian venture capital sector is undergoing a transition, with a noticeable shift of VC capital investment to enterprise tech, AI and deep tech in the past two years – indicating a new level of maturation in the sector. Corporate investment patterns are mirroring this trend.
Although consumer tech continued to receive the most corporate-backed funding in 2025, investments in fintech, IT and industrial startups have steadily increased.
A reason for this shift is that Indian entrepreneurship is maturing: more founders are focused on engineering and science-driven businesses than consumer-led ones. There is market saturation in the consumer tech sector, and growth is no longer as simple or frictionless as it used to be.
Instead of trying to develop new technologies in consumer tech, Indian founders are trying to find the next new breakthrough quantum, defence tech, enterprise tech and automation.
Another reason is a push for greater self-reliance when it comes to the country’s defence capabilities. Rising geopolitical tensions have meant a stronger need to shore up internal critical supply chains, leading to more investor dollars diverted into defence tech startups.
This shift over the past two years is evident in the tepid growth in the consumer tech sector in India. While there were a larger number of corporate-backed rounds (56) in 2025, the average cheque size tended to be lower compared with 2024. Additionally, the sector only saw an overall growth of 2% between 2024 and 2025.
