Are you a student with start-up dreams? Go DeepTech, say investors Premium

“The best thing students can do is build a deep-tech enterprise. Rather than building an enterprise company, Software as a Service (SaaS) company or consumer company, focus on building deep-tech companies. There are much better chances of being successful,” says Suresh Narasimha of CoCreate Ventures, a VC fund that primarily focuses on campus entrepreneurs. 

Are you an aspiring student entrepreneur who wishes to set up your own startup? Then DeepTech may be your best bet, say investors. 

“The best thing students can do is build a deep-tech enterprise. Rather than building an enterprise company, Software as a Service (SaaS) company or consumer company, focus on building deep-tech companies. There are much better chances of being successful,” says Suresh Narasimha of CoCreate Ventures, a VC fund that primarily focuses on campus entrepreneurs. 

Narasimha was speaking at a panel discussion on ‘The Role of Deep Tech and Sustainability in Shaping Tomorrow’s Innovation’ at the Global Startup Summit held at IIIT-Bangalore by Oxfounders, a start-up community created by students at Oxford University. 

For some time, DeepTech – a larger umbrella term for businesses that use advanced science and technology to build solutions to complex problems – has been making waves in the start-up ecosystem evincing investor interest increasingly. According to a recent report by VC firm Ankur Capital, the total deep science tech investments in India doubled in the last three years and crossed $1 billion in the 2021-2023 period. 

The capital pool available for Indian start-ups has grown over the past years. Meanwhile, more and more investors are being attracted to the deep-tech bandwagon which they feel have higher chances of success compared to other start-ups given how technology acts as a strong moat. 

“Chances of success for DeepTech companies are higher than consumer-facing companies. Capital is not a constraint,” says investor and mentor Harikrishnan Govindarajan, who was part of the panel.  

According to him, most start-ups struggle when it comes to scaling up. As the start-up tries to acquire more clients or to expand to more geographies, it might need to customise its product/service to suit the customer or the new market. This requires money and most start-ups turn to VCs or other financing options at this point.