Corporate VCs bullish on India but rush is yet to start: TDK Ventures founder Nicolas Sauvage
Corporate venture capital firms are increasingly eyeing investments in Indian companies, but the rush is yet to begin, according to a top executive at the venture arm of TDK Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer of electronic components and recording and data-storage media.
“I can see more and more of them looking, more of them talking about coming in. I have yet to see a tsunami,” Nicolas Sauvage, founder and president of TDK Ventures, told Mint in an interview.
Corporate venture capital firms, which are dedicated investment arms of large established companies that invest their own capital in startups, have become more active in India over the past 18 months.
Earlier this year, chip maker Qualcomm launched a dedicated $150 million fund for India. Hitachi Ventures invested in Exponent Energy, a Bengaluru-based maker of charging hardware and software for electric vehicles and led a $25 million round in speciality chemicals manufacturer Scimplify. Sony Innovation Fund made two investments in the country after a lull in 2024 and 2025.
Many such funds invest in deeptech, a sector that has long carried high amounts of technology risk, leaving most traditional venture investors out of the sector.
However, with the government’s push through the Research Development and Innovation Fund, funding this year into deeptech has peaked. So far this year, the sector has raised $2.7 billion, compared with $1.7 billion last year, according to Tracxn. So much so that domestic growth investors, who have traditionally stayed away from the sector, are also looking for investments.
TDK Ventures backs companies in their early stages. The firm’s first cheque typically averages out at $3 million-5 million, usually into a seed or Series A company. It sometimes commits to leading follow-on funding rounds.
Some of these funds enter when technology risk has reduced and the company is reaching commercial scale, an area which Sauvage said has traditionally been a sore point in the deeptech ecosystem.
“Their superpower when they come in at that level is they will become that big customer or they will help with go to market or they will help with scaling,” he said.
In India, the firm operates out of its own innovation hub where it hosts a bunch of other such corporate venture funds as it looks to build out.
Focus on India
TDK Ventures has invested in six companies in India so far, starting with AI-powered horticulture platform Fasal in 2023. Since then, it has invested in Exponent energy, electric bike maker Ultraviolette, semiconductor company C2i Semiconductors, reusable medium-lift launch vehicle EtherealX and maintenance solutions provider for heavy industries Infinite Uptime, which is now based in the US.
C2i was acquired by German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies on 5 October in a deal said to have been valued at $100 million-120 million.
A seventh investment is planned later this month, though TDK Ventures declined to identify the company.
“Today, India is our No. 2 country after the US in terms of number of investments,” said Sauvage.
Semiconductors, AI infrastructure and robotics are the main areas of interest in India, alongside energy transition and digital transformation, mirroring the firm’s global mandate. In space, it is looking at launch vehicles, satellite payloads, downstream data applications and even data centres.
The firm's bullishness on India is primarily backed by the growth of talent in the country.
“We’re in a period where the best students no longer go abroad, they stay in India. Not only that, they don’t join big companies, they join startups,” Sauvage said.
Currently, TDK Ventures doesn’t plan to start an India-focused vehicle because the firm believes it would signal that they're lowering their investment standard.