India Ascends 2026

India Ascends 2026 by Lightspeed, a platform to identify and back India’s most exceptional young builders under 25 who are building at the frontier of R&D-first sectors like AI, space, robotics, climate, biotech, energy, and defense tech. This is a program that will focus on the relatively unaddressed surface area of innovation in India, that lives in dorm rooms, research labs, hacker communities, and garages. India Ascends is designed to reach these founders early and give them the belief, access, and platform they need to succeed. If you’re working on something the world hasn’t seen before, we want to hear from you. What winning teams get (Top 3): - $200K - $3M in funding - 12 month strategy & roadmap - Access to senior leaders, policymakers, deep-tech experts across India and the US. - $800k+ in cloud & AI credits What shortlisted teams get (Top 12): - $100K in cloud & AI credits - Two-day expert-led bootcamp