Qualcomm Ventures, founded in 2000, is the corporate venture-capital arm of Qualcomm Incorporated, headquartered in San Diego with an India team active since 2007 out of Bengaluru. Globally the firm has deployed $3B+ across 500+ portfolio companies with 200+ exits (per its official site). In February 2026, at the India AI Impact Summit, it announced a $150 million India AI fund — its second India-focused fund — to back affordable, on-device AI built for population scale.

Investment thesis

Qualcomm Ventures invests where its parent's technology creates an edge: AI, wireless, automotive, enterprise and data-centre tech. In India the thesis has sharpened around affordable, on-device AI — models and applications that run on low-cost hardware for hundreds of millions of users — alongside deeptech, robotics and edge technologies. It joined the India Deep Tech Investment Alliance (November 2025), a consortium of Indian and US investors backing Indian deeptech.

Sectors, stages and cheque sizes

The firm invests at early and growth stages across AI, automotive, mobile, enterprise and data centre, and smart systems (IoT, robotics, sensors). Cheque sizes are described as flexible and not publicly disclosed; the pace of India investing is accelerating under the new fund.

Notable portfolio (India)

India bets include MapMyIndia (IPO December 2021), ideaForge (IPO), Jio, Shadowfax, Cavli Wireless and boAt — spanning mapping, drones, telecom, logistics and consumer audio.

People

Quinn Li is Senior Vice President and Global Head; India is led by Managing Director Rama Bethmangalkar, with Tushar Gupta as Managing Director, North America.

Credits and perks

No formal credits or perks programme is publicly documented; the firm's value-add is technical alignment with Qualcomm's platforms and engineering organisation.

How to engage

The $150 million India AI fund has a clear sweet spot: affordable, on-device AI built for population scale, plus deeptech, robotics and edge technologies. Founders should frame their technology in terms Qualcomm understands — model efficiency, edge deployment, hardware-software co-design — and be ready for deep technical diligence from a team that ships silicon. The firm's India Deep Tech Investment Alliance membership also signals openness to co-investment with domestic deeptech funds. This is not a spray-and-pray corporate fund; strategic fit with Qualcomm's technology roadmap is the price of admission, and the reward is platform access few VCs can match.

Why it matters for founders

If you are building AI that runs on-device, robotics, or edge hardware, a corporate VC that actually ships chips is a different kind of partner — technical validation, platform access and enterprise introductions come built in. With $150M freshly earmarked for India AI, now is the window to get on Rama Bethmangalkar's radar.