India's Deep Tech Shift: From Exporting Talent to Building Multi-Billion Dollar Companies

What happens when a country that exported its best deep tech talent for decades suddenly has the markets, the capital, and the geopolitics to commercialize at home? Abhishek Srivastava, Partner at Kae Capital — one of India's leading institutional seed funds managing $250M+ across five funds — sits down with Rohit Yadav in this special India Series episode to break down The India Deep Tech Report 2025 and map the entire landscape of what's changed, what's working, and what's still missing.From explaining why India has shifted from cost arbitrage to capability arbitrage — to why the country's renewable energy build-out in the last three years has exceeded the previous 15–20 years combined — to why there is no GTM playbook for deep tech hardware and anyone claiming otherwise is lying — this conversation is a masterclass in understanding where India's deep tech ecosystem actually stands and where it's headed by 2030.Whether you're a founder, investor, LP, or just tracking India's emergence as a deep tech force — this one will reframe how you think about the opportunity.Chapters:01:00 — Introduction: Abhishek Srivastava and Kae Capital02:16 — Kae Capital: Five funds, $250M+ AUM, and the portfolio — Porter, Zetwerk, 1MG, Healthkart04:08 — Top three takeaways from The India Deep Tech Report 202508:10 — India's deep tech evolution: From talent era to technology era to market era13:11 — India vs US: How far behind is India's deep tech ecosystem really?16:08 — The categories that truly excite Kae: Energy transition, advanced materials, physical AI20:23 — Which Indian deep tech sectors are primed to go global today?23:18 — Are Indian startups building for the world yet? "Close, but not there"28:34 — Policy, academia, and the IP problem: What needs to improve32:40 — How Kae underwrites risk in deep tech vs SaaS36:57 — Why Kae pushes founders to visit China — and what they come back with39:50 — The zero-to-one journey of an Indian deep tech startup43:12 — Founder patterns that separate deep tech startups that scale from those that stall46:42 — How Kae coaches technical founders on commercialization51:26 — How LPs understand (and misunderstand) deep tech risk-return in India55:56 — Three bold predictions for Indian deep tech by 203058:02 — Building a world-class deep tech company out of India is about...🔑 Key Insights You'll Walk Away With:➡️ Why India has shifted from cost arbitrage to capability arbitrage — and what that means for founders and investors➡️ The three eras of Indian deep tech: talent → technology → market — and why the market era changes everything➡️ Why India's renewable energy progress in the last 3 years exceeds the previous 15–20 years combined➡️ Why there is no GTM playbook for deep tech hardware — and why that's actually the founder's advantage➡️ The optical fiber warning: why getting caught building the wrong technology is the biggest deep tech risk➡️ Why Kae sends founders to China — and why every single one comes back with a different level of ambition➡️ The Series A/B funding gap that could throttle India's deep tech ecosystem➡️ Why India's IP ecosystem still doesn't hold value the way it does in the US — and what needs to change➡️ Kae's four C's framework for backing deep tech founders: Customers, Capital, Capabilities, Community➡️ Why the best deep tech founders hire people smarter than themselves — with zero insecurityLinks:Abhishek Srivastava : https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhisheksrivastava1801/

Kae Capital: https://kae-capital.com/The India Deep Tech Report 2025: https://kae-capital.com/report/india-deeptech-2025/Rohit Yadav: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohityadav23Newsletter: https://yadavrohit.substack.com/