In today’s episode, Rishabh Agarwal, Co-founder and CEO of PeerRobotics, gives us a sense of how automation is changing for small and mid-sized manufacturers and outlines his vision for collaborative robotics. Rishabh shares his experience and perspective on the factory floor transition to advanced robotics.

With a background in manufacturing and technical training from IIT Delhi and the University of Maryland, Agarwal built PeerRobotics with the aim of simplifying human-robot interaction and making automation intuitive for even non-technical users. The six-year-old company’s systems are designed for practical deployment in diverse industrial settings, where robots learn routes through human demonstration and adapt to existing workflows.

Agarwal also describes how PeerRobotics approaches product development, aiming to own the whole stack. The company takes advantage of doing much of its engineering and development at its centres in India, while also tapping advanced R&D experience in the US in certain areas like computer vision.

Insight

Daily Brief

Previous

My guest in today’s episode is Arpit Agarwal, a partner at Blume Ventures, one of India’s best known early-stage sector-agnostic VC firms with a solid track record of backing what Arpit describes as frontier technologies.

In this episode, we discuss the challenges and advantages of building and scaling deep science and technology-based companies out of India. Arpit delves into his experience navigating the cycles of venture capital, the gradual shift to larger fund sizes at Blume, and the fundamentals that guide investment decisions.

He also comments on international dynamics, including the movement of talent and capital in the context of AI being widely seen as the biggest opportunity for founders and investors alike. He weighs in on the shifting balance between hardware and software within India’s deep tech scene and identifies some of the most interesting investment themes.

As Blume prepares to move into its fifth fund, Arpit is also happy to debate why sector-agnostic funds may be better placed to invest in deep tech.

Watch the video

Insight

Takeaways from conversations with founders, investors, industry leaders, and other stakeholders building India’s deep tech and climate tech ecosystems.

Daily Morning Brief

Daily brief on deep tech and climate tech news from India and around the world.

Previous

My guests today are Murari Ramkumar and Dr. Nagesh Kini, founders of Vimano, a deep-tech startup headquartered in Bengaluru, India, specializing in advanced nanotechnology and materials science.

The company focuses on developing ion-conductive membranes that are critical components for energy transition applications, including Redox flow batteries, electrolyzers for green hydrogen production and Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells.

These technologies are essential for enabling cost-effective, long-duration energy storage and supporting the global shift toward renewable energy systems.

In this conversation, Murari and Dr. Nagesh give us a glimpse into their journey that started with a chance encounter at Thermax and has grown to a venture-funded membrane technologies startup, with early customers including the Indian Space Research Organisation. They are now backed by early-stage deep science and tech focused investor Ankur Capital, a VC firm that’s among the leaders in backing founders in India in sectors ranging from agri and biotech to B2B supply chain.

In this episode, the two entrepreneurs also delve into some of the technical and entrepreneurial hurdles of building a deep-tech startup in India, from fashioning their own manufacturing tools to navigating the funding landscape and scaling up in a resource-constrained environment. In fact, Murari and Dr. Nagesh bootstrapped Vimano for five years before Ankur Capital led their first institutional funding round.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a scientist, or simply curious about the future of deep tech in India, in this episode we offer a glimpse into a journey of turning lab-scale innovation into globally relevant products and solutions.

For my pick of daily headlines on deep tech and climate tech news from India and around the world, please look for my India Tech Report: Daily Morning Brief podcast.

To support my work, please subscribe to my free newsletter, India Tech Report