India’s experienced startup operators are increasingly betting on artificial intelligence as they turn entrepreneurs, signalling a shift in where the country’s next generation of founders sees the biggest opportunity.
One in four operator-led startups founded in 2025 was building an AI company, making the sector the largest destination for this cohort of founders for the first time, according to a report by RTP Global and Tracxn.
The report defines operator-founders as former CXOs and senior executives who have spent years scaling businesses, managing teams and overseeing profit-and-loss responsibilities before launching ventures of their own. It analysed 189 operator-led technology startups founded between 2023 and 2025.
Investor interest in operator-led ventures has strengthened sharply over the past three years. Funding into such startups increased nearly 12-fold, from $11.1 million in 2023 to $131.7 million in 2025, while seed funding grew 17.5 times during the same period.
The number of funding rounds exceeding $1 million rose from two in 2023 to 21 in 2025, even as overall tech startup formation slowed.
Although operator-led startups accounted for less than 1% of all technology startups founded between 2023 and 2025, they attracted 11% of the total funding raised in 2025, highlighting investor preference for founders with proven execution capabilities.
Of the 51 AI startups identified in the report, 30 are focused on vertical AI applications, followed by horizontal AI, developer tools, infrastructure and enterprise AI.
Interestingly, investor capital has not yet fully caught up with founders’ enthusiasm for AI. While AI accounts for the largest share of operator-led startups, it ranks only fourth by funding raised, suggesting that investors continue to allocate more capital to established sectors even as experienced founders increasingly gravitate towards AI.
The cohort has also been raising larger rounds than the broader startup ecosystem. Average seed funding stood at $2.4 million, compared with $1.4 million for the rest of India’s tech startups, while average Series A funding reached $10.5 million versus $8.4 million for the broader market. Average Series A valuations also climbed to $53.3 million.
Outside AI, fintech and insurtech, retail tech and e-commerce, and transportation and mobility remained the largest sectors by funding among operator-led startups, the report noted.
