Nasscom launches Generative AI Foundry Programme, selects 26 promising start-ups

Nasscom, the IT industry’s leading body, has revealed the selection of 26 start-ups for its inaugural ‘Generative AI Foundry’ programme, aimed at empowering domestic tech start-ups in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector. In collaboration with over 30 industry organisations and investors, this 12-month programme will witness select partners investing up to $25 million in the most promising start-ups.

Nasscom stated that investors will provide support in various forms to foster growth and innovation. Debjani Ghosh, President of Nasscom, noted the need for rigorous assessment of sustainable opportunities in different sectors and innovative approaches to attract patient capital and enable scalable compute capabilities.

These start-ups were chosen from a pool of over 70 applicants. On average, the start-ups in this cohort are two years old and have already secured half a million dollars from institutional investors.

These start-ups offer solutions that produce text, audio, code, video/image, and multimodal output, showcasing strong applications in retail, media, entertainment, banking, financial services, and various enterprise functions.

Programme partners include Anthill Ventures, Broadridge, Capgemini, Centific, Chiratae Ventures, Cigniti, eClerx, Endiya Partners, GitHub, Jio GenNext, MathWorks, Microsoft, Pavestone VC, Premji Invest, Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore (SRI-B), Silverneedle Ventures, Sutherland, and _VOIS (Vodafone Intelligent Solutions).

In the initial six months, start-ups will participate in rigorous boot camps and receive active mentoring from industry experts and investor mentors.