India's Neysa Raises $1.2B
India's AI cloud infrastructure startup Neysa is raising $1.2 billion ($600M equity/debt) led by Blackstone, marking the largest AI startup deal in the country. The company operates 20,000+ GPUs for AI workloads and cloud infrastructure. Nigeria's Terra Industries also hit $34M total seed funding (adding $22M) for hardware and defense tech, representing Africa's biggest startup round.
- The deal values Neysa at an estimated $1.4 billion, making it India's second unicorn of 2026. This valuation represents a nearly 11-fold increase from its $128 million valuation during its Series A funding round in October 2024. - Neysa was founded in 2023 by CEO Sharad Sanghi and CTO Anindya Das. Sanghi previously founded data center giant Netmagic, which was acquired by Japanese telecom company NTT in 2012. - Upon completion of the equity investment, Blackstone will become a majority stakeholder in the AI cloud firm. Additional equity investors in the round include Teachers' Venture Growth, TVS Capital, and 360 ONE Asset. - The new capital is earmarked to significantly expand India's AI infrastructure by helping Neysa deploy more than 20,000 GPUs. This would be a substantial addition to the country's estimated current pool of around 60,000 GPUs available for commercial AI tasks. - Prior to this round, the company had secured $50 million in total funding, which included a $20 million seed round in early 2024 and a $30 million Series A round in October 2024. - Neysa's platform is focused on providing "sovereign compute," which enables enterprises and government bodies to deploy AI workloads securely within India, aligning with the government's IndiaAI Mission.
