In a strong vote of confidence for India’s innovation economy, General Catalyst has announced a $5 billion investment commitment over the next 5 years. The Silicon Valley-based firm, which manages over $43 billion in assets, revealed the plan at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. The move significantly expands its India strategy, less than 2 years after its merger with Venture Highway, and marks a sharp increase from the earlier $500 million to $1 billion allocation.
The fresh capital will focus on startups in artificial intelligence, healthcare, defense technology, fintech and consumer technology. India, home to over 1 billion internet users, is positioning itself as a major AI investment hub. The government aims to attract more than $200 billion in AI infrastructure investments over the next 2 years. The summit saw participation from global firms including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. “India will build the next generation of global platform companies,” said Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst, highlighting the scale advantage Indian founders bring to large population markets.
General Catalyst believes India’s biggest AI opportunity lies in large-scale real-world deployment rather than building frontier models. The firm cited government-built digital infrastructure, a vast domestic market and a deep services talent pool as key strengths. AI momentum is also rising among large corporates. Adani Group and Reliance Industries, led by Mukesh Ambani, have together announced over $200 billion in AI data center investments. OpenAI has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services to build a 100-megawatt AI data center under its Stargate expansion. Companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google have also outlined multi-billion-dollar AI and cloud investments in India.
General Catalyst’s India portfolio includes Zepto, PB Health, Raphe, Jeh Aerospace, Pronto and Ayr Energy. “This investment allows us to operate at a different scale in India,” said Neeraj Arora, CEO for India, Middle East and North Africa. The firm plans to support startups from early stage to public markets and is building frameworks to convert AI pilot projects into full-scale deployments through government-industry collaboration.
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