THE 10 GRITTY START-UPS

Ten Indian deep-tech startups—from spacetech, EV, robotics, and healthcare—find a spot on the World Economic Forum's prestigious list of top 100 emerging companies for 2025. Here is the inside story of how their founders battled odds, rejections, failures and naysayers to find a mention on the global stage

- BY RAJIV SINGH

WHAT IS the common thread running through India's deep-tech founders and javelin champion Neeraj Chopra? All of them are deep believers.

Here's how. In a cricket-obsessed country, it's hard to think of-forget play-any other sport. And if it's javelin, it is ridiculously easy for anybody to pass a judgement. The taunts and jibes are normalised. Criticism and cynicism are widely accepted. And naysayers and prophets of gloom and doom get into business. Deep-tech founders face a similar ordeal.

Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner at Speciale Invest-the venture capital fund that backed four of the 10 start-ups that recently made it to the Technology Pioneers' List of the World Economic Forum-tells us why these entrepreneurs are special. "They live in a world where someone has been constantly telling them 'no, you can't do it," says the deep-tech venture capitalist. "It takes a lot of tenacity to hear somebody say 'no' and still hold on to your dream," he says.

In a country, when you are judged on results, on exams, on scores, on quantum of funding, on valuation, it's tough to be a deep-tech founder. "It's not easy to find an answer to 'tum kaisey karogey (how will you do it)," says Rajaram.

Business Today strings together untold stories of the gritty techies who are putting India on the global map. Let there be hundreds-if not millions-of Neeraj Chopras and deep-tech founders.

AGNIKUL COSMOS

UPWARDS & ONWARDS

Seven years of toil and four aborted launchesSrinath Ravichandran and Moin SPM ignored naysayers to make their rocket fly

THERE IS ACTION. And there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is Newton's third law of motion.