PM Modi courts global VCs: 120+ startups seek capital at Bharat Innovates 2026

For Indian deep-tech founders accustomed to pitching in Bangalore boardrooms, the setting could not be more symbolic: Nice, France, on the sidelines of a G7 summit. PM Modi’s curated meeting with unnamed global VCs—flanked by OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal and upGrad’s Ronnie Screwvala—isn’t just diplomacy; it’s a deliberate funnel opening. With 120 vetted startups from IITs and national labs, this conclave could rewrite the playbook for how Indian ventures access patient, strategic capital from European and global LPs, bypassing traditional US-centric routes.

On June 14, 2026, in Nice, France, Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a high-level roundtable with global venture capitalists, innovation leaders, and prominent Indian entrepreneurs, setting the stage for the inaugural Bharat Innovates 2026 conclave. The closed-door interaction, held hours before the public launch of the three-day event, underscores India's intensified push to position its deep-tech and startup ecosystem at the center of global innovation supply chains. With over 120 Indian deep-tech startups and 15 top-tier institutions, including the IITs, participating, the conclave—jointly inaugurated by Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron—marks a pivotal moment in the 'India-France Year of Innovation,' a bilateral initiative that has quietly built momentum across defense, space, AI, and digital infrastructure.

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PM Modi’s curated meeting with unnamed global VCs—flanked by OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal and upGrad’s Ronnie Screwvala—isn’t just diplomacy; it’s a deliberate funnel opening.

This pre-conclave investor engagement is more than a diplomatic courtesy; it is a deliberate capital-mobilization exercise. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Principal Scientific Advisor Ajay Kumar Sood were in attendance, signaling the government's top-down commitment to convert R&D breakthroughs into investable ventures. The presence of serial entrepreneurs like OYO's Ritesh Agarwal and media pioneer Ronnie Screwvala alongside unnamed global investors hints at a curated matchmaking effort, likely targeting later-stage scaling capital for India's maturing deep-tech startups—those in quantum computing, green hydrogen, space tech, and advanced materials. For venture capitalists, the conclave offers a de-risked pipeline: startups vetted by India's premier academic institutions and carrying initial government validation through programs like the National Deep Tech Startup Policy.

The timing aligns with Modi's broader diplomatic calendar, which includes bilateral talks with Macron and a G7 Summit engagement, effectively embedding startup diplomacy within strategic partnership frameworks. By linking investment discussions to the G7 backdrop, India signals that its innovation sector is not a peripheral grant-seeking exercise but a core component of economic statecraft. The choice of France as host—a nation with a thriving startup scene and public investment bank Bpifrance—creates natural synergies for co-investment funds and cross-border incubators. The three-day conclave (June 14–16) will serve as a live marketplace of ideas, prototypes, and term sheets, with expectations that joint India-France innovation challenges and venture funds could be announced.