That’s the staggering stat Karthik Reddy shares with Tarun Mehta — and it raises a hard question:
Is the problem belief, capital, or something else entirely?
According to Tarun, the real challenge isn’t money.
It’s gestation — and the metrics problem that comes with it.
Deep-tech and hardware companies often have better revenue-to-capital ratios than consumer or internet businesses.
They don’t burn cash on ads, discounts, or artificial growth.
They build assets.
But they also take five to six years before the first real product hits the ground.
And in that time, what do investors evaluate?
What do founders pitch year after year?
What metrics exist when the build cycle itself spans half a decade?
That’s the disconnect:
No metrics → long gestation feels even longer → local capital hesitates → global investors step in.
In this episode of The Blume Podcast, Tarun Mehta breaks down why India struggles to fund deep tech at home — and what needs to change.
⚡ Watch the full episode now — a brutally honest take on funding India’s next wave of engineering-led companies.