Titan Capital, one of India’s most active seed-stage venture capital firms, has announced the launch of a specialised investment vertical to fund startups innovating in India’s defence and strategic technology space.
While India has made notable strides in digital infrastructure, semiconductors, and space, defence-tech remains a critical frontier where public R&D and procurement still dominate. With rising geopolitical uncertainty and rapid advances in AI, drone warfare, and satellite-based systems, Titan Capital believes private capital must now step in to catalyse the next era of indigenous military innovation.
With this program, Titan Capital is actively seeking to invest in startups working at the intersection of advanced hardware, aerospace, cybersecurity, and manufacturing. The focus is not only on national security but also on fostering deep-tech innovation, creating high-value jobs, and helping India become a net exporter of strategic technologies.
Kunal Bahl, Co-founder of Titan Capital, said, “We are at a historic inflection point where national security, deep-tech innovation, and startup agility are converging. India cannot achieve true self-reliance in defence by relying on imports or public funding alone. We need to back our brightest minds—engineers, researchers, and builders—to create sovereign, dual-use technologies that can shape not just India’s future, but the future of global defence. At Titan, we’ve always been a founder-first firm. This vertical extends that ethos into a sector that has national consequence.”
As part of this initiative, Titan Capital is also looking to collaborate with veterans from the armed forces, scientists, and experienced technologists who can help assess and guide these investments with strategic insight and domain expertise.
Globally, venture capital is accelerating its focus on defence-tech. U.S.-based Anduril Industries recently raised $1.5 billion for its AI-enabled combat systems, while Europe’s Helsing secured €450 million in backing from General Catalyst to develop defence AI.
India is now at the brink of a similar inflection, and Titan Capital wants to ensure that the ecosystem doesn’t miss its moment. The Indian government has increased the defence budget to ₹6.81 lakh crore for FY 2025–26 and launched schemes like iDEX and the Technology Development Fund (TDF) to support homegrown solutions.
But capital gaps remain for early-stage companies working on complex, high-risk, high-reward technologies—precisely where venture capital firms like Titan Capital can play a catalytic role by unlocking speed, conviction, and long-term support that traditional systems often lack.
Titan Capital has backed over 250 startups to date, including Ola, Razorpay, Urban Company, OfBusiness and Giva. With this new initiative, it hopes to shape the next generation of strategic innovation at the intersection of purpose, tech, and nation-building.
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