By Aditya Soni

Nov 5 (Reuters) - Nvidia ( NVDA ) on Wednesday joined

Indian and U.S. investors backing the south Asian country's

deep-tech startups as the group added new members and secured

more than $850 million in capital commitments to close a big

funding gap.

Qualcomm Ventures, Activate AI, InfoEdge Ventures, Chirate

Ventures and Kalaari Capital are among the new investors joining

the India Deep Tech Alliance.

It was launched in September with a $1 billion initial

commitment to support companies in industries such as space,

semiconductors, artificial intelligence and robotics.

As a founding member and strategic advisor to the group,

Nvidia ( NVDA ) will provide technical guidance, training and policy

input to help Indian deep-tech startups adopt its AI and

computing tools.

The move is the latest effort to tackle what founders and

analysts describe as chronic underfunding of the research-driven

startups, which struggle to draw venture capital given their

long development timelines and uncertain paths to profitability.

It comes days after the Indian government launched a $12

billion initiative to spur research and development in a country

that is a services giant but still trails in manufacturing.

Deep-tech startup funding in India surged 78% to $1.6

billion last year, but still accounted for only about one-fifth

of the $7.4 billion raised overall, according to a report by

industry body Nasscom.

An Indian minister's call in April for startups to emulate

China by focusing on high-end technology rather than grocery

deliveries had drawn backlash from entrepreneurs, who said the

government needed to do more to support innovation.

Experts have said deep-tech investment is vital to build

core technologies such chips and artificial intelligence that

secure economic and strategic independence.

Sriram Viswanathan, founding managing partner at Celesta

Capital, told Reuters the increasing government support meant

that "there's no better time for India to look at deep tech".

Celesta, which has invested in startups including space-tech

firm Agnikul Cosmos and drone maker IdeaForge, was among the

investors that launched the alliance along with Accel, Blume

Ventures, Gaja Capital, Premji Invest, among others.

The alliance's members aim to deploy their own capital to

Indian deep-tech startups over the next five to ten years while

also providing mentorship and network access.

"There's no real pooling of capital. It's voluntary,"

Viswanathan said, drawing parallels to Nasscom.