Celesta Capital and Blume Ventures, two South Asian led venture firms with active U.S. footprints, are at the center of a new 1B dollar coalition to accelerate deep tech company building in the U.S.-India corridor. The India Deep Tech Investment Alliance brings together an initial group of eight investors with a shared plan to back Indian-incorporated startups across semiconductors, space, quantum, robotics, biotech, medical devices, energy, and applied AI.
Celesta is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has long specialized in deep tech at the intersection of hardware, systems, and biology. Blume, while founded in India, now maintains a San Francisco office and a growing cross-border platform that scouts and supports U.S. market expansion for portfolio companies. The combined footprint makes the alliance more than a domestic initiative. It is a two-way bridge for talent, customers, and supply chains.
The coalition did not emerge in a vacuum. India’s new Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) Scheme has made local incorporation a prerequisite for incentive access. The alliance members explicitly intend to work within that framework, committing private capital over five to ten years to Indian-domiciled ventures while also enabling U.S. market entry for winners. That time horizon matches deep tech build cycles and signals that investors expect to carry companies through validation, pilot manufacturing, and scaled production.
On launch, Sriram Viswanathan, Founding Managing Partner at Celesta Capital, framed the ambition clearly: “Deep tech represents the next frontier of global innovation and we expect great companies to emerge and lead in this space from the U.S.-India corridor.” He called the moment “a historic opportunity to deepen U.S.-India partnership” and to “power the next wave of transformative global companies.” Viswanathan’s point is straightforward. If you combine U.S. design ecosystems and capital depth with India’s scale, engineering talent, and policy tailwinds, you can compress the time from lab to market in categories that have historically struggled to attract patient capital.
Blume Ventures’ Arpit Agarwal added an operator’s perspective from the firm’s 14-year track record in frontier categories. He cited early bets in warehouse automation and carbon capture, alongside newer portfolio names in satellites and defense optics, and tied the alliance to a broader national push to expand research and commercialize indigenous IP. That history matters because deep tech investors are often judged not by talk but by how they underwrite complexity and stick with companies through slow, technical setbacks. Blume’s on-the-ground platform and U.S. presence position it to help founders bridge customer discovery in America while executing engineering in India.
Mechanically, the alliance will not turn member firms into a single pooled fund. The model is lighter. Each firm maintains its own strategy and decision rights, but agrees to collaborate on pipeline development, diligence, select co-investments, and expert convenings. An advisory committee will coordinate objectives and government engagement, with Celesta’s Arun Kumar set to chair the initial body. For founders, the potential upside is faster decisions and fewer contradictory signals during technical diligence. For U.S. corporates, it means a clearer window into procurement-ready startups rather than a scattershot of introductions.
It is also notable how quickly the legal architecture came together. Nishith Desai Associates served as global strategic legal adviser on the formation, creating cross-border governance and information-sharing scaffolding. In cross-jurisdiction alliances, speed tends to correlate with pre-work on fund-to-fund constructs, conflict protocols, and IP protection. That groundwork can shorten cycle times for tech transfer, export compliance, and joint development agreements that deep tech startups often need before scale-up.
The strategic context extends beyond venture math. The U.S. is re-wiring supply chains in semiconductors and advanced manufacturing. India is building out fabs, OSAT capacity, and defense-adjacent R&D while seeking global partners. A structured, cross-border investor alliance led by South Asian operators with U.S. bases is a pragmatic way to ensure that capital keeps pace with geopolitics. If execution matches the thesis, expect to see tighter loops between U.S. customers and Indian production, more credible pilot runs, and a clearer glide path from grants to growth equity. TechCrunch’s reporting underscores that members are planning for long holding periods and purpose-built capital stacks, rather than chasing quick flips.
For Celesta and Blume specifically, the alliance is an amplifier. Celesta’s Silicon Valley headquarters gives founders proximity to tier-one customers, standards bodies, and late-stage capital. Blume’s San Francisco office and cross-border team create a beachhead for U.S. go-to-market while keeping engineering close to India’s cost and talent advantage. Together, they send a simple market signal: the corridor now has organized capital and operational know-how on both ends, led by South Asian investors who have operated in U.S. contexts for years.
Celesta Capital is a Silicon Valley based deep tech venture firm led by South Asian founder Sriram Viswanathan and peers, and is a founding member of the 1B alliance.
Blume Ventures, co-founded by Karthik Reddy and Sanjay Nath, maintains a San Francisco office to support cross-border deal flow and U.S. market access.
The alliance model keeps firm independence but adds shared pipeline, diligence, and government engagement under an advisory committee chaired initially by Arun Kumar.
Policy tailwinds matter. The RDI Scheme requires local incorporation for incentives, and members plan 5 to 10 year investments aligned to deep tech product cycles.
