HSBC deploys over half of $1 billion India startup fund: Top bank official

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The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now. Read Today's Paper HSBC deploys over half of $1 billion India startup fund: Top bank officialBy Joel Rebello, ET BureauLast Updated: Oct 17, 2026, 01:32:00 PM ISTSynopsis

HSBC has deployed more than half of its $1 billion India startup financing commitment within a year and is open to raising the limit as demand grows. The bank is also seeing venture funding shift beyond consumer-led businesses towards areas such as space technology and biomedical innovation.

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Loading...×Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) has used more than half of the $1 billion it had committed to fund start-ups through loans in India under its so-called innovation banking platform within a year of starting operations, David Sabow, global head of innovation banking at HSBC, said in an interview.

Sabow said the bank has exceeded its target in terms of loans, deposits, client acquisition and is looking to deepen its existing franchise in the country.

“We have made good progress, deploying more than half of the $1 billion committed. This deployment is spread mostly across portfolio companies in consumer tech, business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) commerce, and a little bit in enterprise software companies also. But primarily 70-80% would be B2B, B2C consumer, commerce kind of platforms,” he said.

“Over the next 10 years, I believe that India is going to actually maintain more of that intellectual horsepower that for many years has found its way into Silicon Valley or Europe or other parts of the world. If more of that stays in India, we think that's going to be a significant trend, and VCs (venture capital funds) are certainly focused on that. We are hopeful we can facilitate more of this, given that we work with VCs that account for about 75% of venture flows deployed globally,” he said.

Last year India became the 13th market with a dedicated platform for startups for HSBC. The bank launched its innovation banking proposition after acquiring Silicon Valley Bank in the UK in March 2023. It provides banking services and working capital and term loans to early- and late-stage growth startups through this programme.

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Sabow said he sees a strong pipeline of venture-backed start-ups looking to bank with HSBC both in India and globally. He said that the Indian start-up ecosystem is undergoing a structural change away from the largely consumer-led like quick commerce theme which dominated the market a few years ago.

“The big theme and change we are seeing now is more sophisticated technologies getting funded. Space technology has been particularly intriguing, with venture capital dollars moving into India. We bank more than half of the top 10 space tech companies in India. There is also a lot more around biomedical innovation and biomedical investing,” Sabow said.

To be sure, with the startup funding business just a year old in India and about three years old globally, it is still one of the smallest businesses in terms of revenue, but also one of the fastest growing. In India, the bank offers short term working capital loans averaging about a one year tenure in different forms like trade loans or overdraft facilities.
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