Hyderabad: Hyderabad may have emerged as one of India’s biggest deeptech startup clusters over the past six years, but still trails other deeptech startup hubs in attracting funding.India has 9,102 deeptech companies, including 7,925 active firms. Bengaluru leads with 1,777 companies, while Hyderabad is among the next largest centres with 619, close to Delhi’s 628 and ahead of Mumbai’s 597 and Pune’s 522, according to data provided by Tracxn exclusively to TOI.However, the strong company count is not reflected in funding numbers. Between 2020 and 2026 year-to-date (YTD), Hyderabad’s deeptech startups raised $670.6 million across 180 funding rounds.This places the city behind Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai in total deeptech funding. Bengaluru attracted $3.22 billion across 870 rounds, more than four times Hyderabad’s total. Chennai raised $1.35 billion across 193 rounds, while Mumbai drew $1.29 billion across 178 rounds, says Tracxn.Mumbai’s performance stands out because it has fewer deeptech companies than Hyderabad but has attracted nearly twice the capital. Chennai, despite not appearing among the top five cities by company count, has raised more than double Hyderabad’s funding.Average deal sizes point to fewer large-ticket rounds in Hyderabad. Its average funding per round was about $3.7 million, similar to Bengaluru’s, but below Mumbai’s $7.3 million and Chennai’s $7 million.Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn, said Hyderabad’s position, “ranking second in total company formation with over 330 deeptech startups founded between 2020 and 2026 YTD, yet holding fourth place in total capital inflows,” shows the city has generated ventures, but fewer have attracted large institutional rounds.“Hyderabad’s lower funding relative to its startup count is a reflection of the nature and maturity of its deeptech ecosystem. The city has a strong pipeline of research and hardware-led firms but many are still in early commercialisation phase while sectors like aerospace and defence have longer development cycles and use a broader mix of govt grants and strategic capital.,” Singh explained.She also said big funding was concentrated in a few companies like Kore.ai and Skyroot, while the city remains strong in space tech, aerospace, defence, drones, advanced manufacturing and engineering-led technologies.Nationally, deeptech funding has rebounded from $880 million in 2023 to $1.33 billion in 2024, $1.59 billion in 2025 and $2.41 billion in 2026 YTD.Chetan Mehta, founding partner at Aum Ventures, said Hyderabad’s deeptech rise is relatively recent and funding can be slower because deeptech firms take years to reach technology-readiness milestones.“The whole deeptech ecosystem started maybe only in the last seven or eight years, when companies like Skyroot Aerospace and Dhruva started coming up in Hyderabad,” Mehta said, adding that he was bullish on Hyderabad, where his fund has already made a few investments.
