AI funding boom pulls Big Four deeper into startup scrutiny

When Raunak Bhinge first approached institutional investors seeking funding for Infinite Uptime, the pitch was straightforward: much of India’s factory equipment was still analogue, and digitising it could help manufacturers improve output.

- Salman H. [e-mail]

Diligence coincides with investor interest.

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Over time, the venture pivoted from being seen as a software startup to proving it was an artificial intelligence (AI)-backed business built on proprietary industrial data and models refined over years of deployments.

“Investor due diligence has become deeper over the years as we raised funding,” said Bhinge, whose venture has raised over $60 million since inception. “There is still a bit of paralysis even now.”

That is widening the circle of people pulled in to conduct diligence, from outside specialists to the Big Four advisory firms such as PwC and Deloitte. While they were always part of deal scrutiny, it was mostly for financial diligence, tech and cybersecurity reviews. AI has changed that playbook. Investors also want to know how the data is sourced, how models were trained, how reliable the outputs are, and whether customers are seeing real value.

Increased diligence coincides with growing investor interest in AI startups, as the technology threatens to disrupt traditional models and the software-as-a-service (Saas) model. Indian AI ventures raised $832 million in 2025, with another $633 million flowing in during the first quarter of 2026 alone, according to Tracxn data.

Blackstone in February led a more than $1 billion investment in Neysa, while Emergent raised $70 million a month earlier. Sarvam AI is also reportedly in talks for a $200-250 million round from investors including Nvidia Corp, Bessemer Venture Partners and HCL Technologies Ltd.