Omnivore, one in all India’s main sustainability-focused enterprise capital companies, has launched a report titled “India Life Sciences Startup Investing Report – A 5-Yr Evaluation“ in partnership with Nucleate. Unveiled in the course of the BioWave occasion at C-CAMP in Bangalore, the report presents a deep dive into India’s biotech funding panorama from 2020 to 2024.
The report reveals that India’s biotech sector has gained outstanding momentum with $1.9 billion invested throughout 465 offers over 5 years — a transparent sign of shifting capital flows in the direction of biotech innovation. Peak funding was recorded at $749 million in 2022 adopted by a slowdown with investments dipping to $269 million in 2024.
BioWave, an initiative by Omnivore, Nucleate, and IndieBio, is designed to spice up funding and innovation in India’s bioeconomy. Supported by BIRAC, C-CAMP, IKP, Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre, Enterprise Heart, and SINE (IIT Bombay), the platform seeks to focus on the work of entrepreneur-scientists throughout the nation.
Biopharma and medical biotechnology dominated the funding panorama, accounting for 42% of complete investments. Nonetheless, investor curiosity is rising in rising verticals akin to sustainable and novel supplies (7%), agrifood life sciences (10%), industrial biotech (10%), and bio-services & informatics (31%).
Geographically, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Chennai attracted 90% of the whole funding. But, mid-tier cities like Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad are rising as promising biotech hubs.
Seed-stage offers peaked in 2021 with 77 rounds, however fell to 62 in 2024, reflecting investor warning in the direction of pre-revenue ventures. Whereas Collection A remained constant, Collection B offers surged to $253 million in 2022 earlier than dropping to $48 million in 2024.
“This report provides essential insights into that transformation—highlighting the place capital has flowed and the way investor readiness is accelerating deep tech throughout industrial biotech and sustainable supplies,” stated Mark Kahn, Managing Companion at Omnivore. “To actually unlock India’s potential in local weather motion, useful resource effectivity, and meals safety, sustained capital circulate into bioscience-led startups will probably be important.”
India’s bioeconomy has greater than doubled, rising from $86 billion in 2020 to $165.7 billion in 2024—now contributing 4.25% to the nationwide GDP. Whereas biotech startups stay a small a part of the ecosystem, they’re enjoying an important position in driving innovation throughout agriculture, manufacturing, and healthcare.
“BioWave marks a big milestone in India’s biotechnology panorama by bringing collectively incubators, enterprise capitalists, and ecosystem stakeholders,” stated Dr Jitendra Kumar, Managing Director of BIRAC, Division of Biotechnology. “DBT-BIRAC has persistently championed bio innovation, and I welcome new change-makers to this mission. This strategic collaboration creates the inspiration wanted to raise India’s life sciences ecosystem globally. The report clearly demonstrates promising funding diversification past conventional biopharma into sustainable supplies and agrifood applied sciences — completely aligned with our nationwide innovation priorities.”
Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO and Director of C-CAMP, added, “C-CAMP is delighted to collaborate with Omnivore and Nucleate on this initiative. BioWave is creating important connections between scientific innovation and funding capital wanted to nurture our subsequent technology of biotech breakthroughs. The report’s revelation that 90% of investments stay concentrated in simply 4 metro cities highlights each our progress and the super alternative to domesticate regional innovation hubs throughout India.”
Whereas early-stage investments confronted headwinds, the report notes a gradual rise in institutional traders, company VCs, and world local weather funds backing biotech ventures. To totally realise the sector’s potential, it requires sustained capital circulate into each early- and growth-stage firms driving India’s bioeconomy.
