Activate and Nvidia Partner to Fuel India's 'Day Zero' AI Startups

The partnership between Activate and Nvidia represents a strategic pivot in how early-stage artificial intelligence ventures are nurtured within the Indian ecosystem. By moving upstream to the 'day zero' phase—often before a company is even formally incorporated—Activate is positioning itself as a high-conviction incubator-VC hybrid. This collaboration addresses the primary bottleneck for AI startups: the scarcity and cost of high-performance compute resources. By providing direct access to Nvidia’s GPU infrastructure and the Nvidia Inception program, the partnership effectively lowers the barrier to entry for technical founders who previously struggled to secure the hardware necessary for large-scale model training and deployment.

Beyond hardware, the integration of Nvidia’s Nemotron family of open models and reference workflows into the Activate portfolio provides a significant technical edge. Startups will benefit from co-building sessions with Nvidia’s solution architects, allowing them to optimize their applications for the Nvidia software stack from the first line of code. This level of technical support is typically reserved for later-stage companies, but Activate’s model aims to institutionalize this support at the ideation stage. This 'full-stack' approach to venture capital—combining capital, compute, and architectural guidance—is designed to accelerate the time-to-market for Indian AI products targeting global audiences.

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Launched by Haptik co-founder Aakrit Vaish and former Together Fund principal Pratyush Choudhury, Activate has attracted a formidable roster of Limited Partners (LPs).

The fund’s pedigree further solidifies its market position. Launched by Haptik co-founder Aakrit Vaish and former Together Fund principal Pratyush Choudhury, Activate has attracted a formidable roster of Limited Partners (LPs). The involvement of industry titans like Vinod Khosla, Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas, and Essential AI’s Ashish Vaswani suggests a high degree of confidence in the fund’s ability to identify and scale the next generation of AI talent. These LPs bring not just capital, but a global network of expertise that can help Indian founders navigate the complexities of the US and European markets.

From a broader market perspective, this move signals Nvidia’s deepening commitment to the Indian tech landscape. As the global race for AI dominance intensifies, India’s vast pool of technical talent is becoming a critical battleground. By embedding its technology at the earliest possible stage of startup formation, Nvidia is ensuring that the next wave of AI innovation is built on its proprietary ecosystem. For the Indian startup ecosystem, this partnership could be the catalyst needed to transition from a services-heavy industry to a product-led AI powerhouse.

Looking ahead, the success of this initiative will be measured by the quality of the first cohort of startups emerging from the Activate-Nvidia pipeline. Investors and industry analysts will be watching closely to see if this 'day zero' support translates into faster funding rounds and higher valuation premiums. As the $75-million fund begins deploying capital in checks ranging from $500,000 to $3 million, the focus will likely shift toward vertical AI applications where Indian founders can leverage domain expertise alongside Nvidia’s cutting-edge infrastructure.