Four Emerging Deeptech Startups Join Lightspeed’s India Ascends Platform

Lightspeed India has selected four deep tech startups led by founders under the age of 25 for its India Ascends cohort, an initiative aimed at supporting young entrepreneurs working on frontier technologies.

The India Ascends programme focuses on sectors such as artificial intelligence, space and aerospace, robotics, biotechnology, and defence technology.

Lightspeed has partnered with Anthropic, Groq, Google Cloud, and AWS to support the platform.

According to the firm, each selected team will receive equity funding between USD 200,000 and USD 3 million. In addition, they will be offered a year-long strategic roadmap tailored to help them move from early-stage innovation to commercial application.

The startups will also receive more than USD 500,000 in cloud, AI, and software credits, along with access to policymakers and Lightspeed’s global network of founders and operators.

The four selected startups include Sapien Labs, founded by Shashank Choudhary and Aakash Bhagat, which is working to transform drug trials using data-driven models instead of human subjects.

Eyecandy Robotics, founded by Alqama Shaikh, Raghuvamsi Velagala, and Mankaran Singh, is developing advanced physical AI characters designed to significantly improve user engagement.

Celestial Aerospace, founded by Shreyans Jain, is building balloon-assisted launch systems aimed at reducing the cost of space access.

Sentience, founded by Abhishek Parmar and Akash Karnatak, is developing a robotics foundational model designed to eliminate the gap between simulation and real-world performance.

Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed, said, “What stood out across this young cohort wasn’t just the technical depth, but the clarity and the intent to build enduring companies solving hard problems.” He added, “These founders represent a new generation of builders who are thinking globally from day zero, and we are all in on their journeys.”