NEW DELHI, June 27 -- Funding for India's robotics start-ups almost doubled to $42.1 million in the first six months of 2026 from $22.7 million in the comparable span last year, with the average cheque size up 94.4% over the period, data platform Tracxn said. The funding was $35.8 million in the first half of 2024. While the rise in funding signals growing momentum in the sector, experts said it is still too early to celebrate. In 2025, Indian robotics startups raised less than 1% of the capital secured by US robotics startups and about 2% of that raised in China, according to Tracxn. Experts attributed the renewed investor interest in robotics to the maturing of technology. "As global pioneers approach public markets and demonstrate commercial success, a new generation of founders has gained confidence to build the next technology stack," said Bhaskar Majumdar, founder of Unicorn India Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. The latest example is US humanoid robotics startup Agility Robotics, which said earlier this month it plans to go public through a SPAC merger at a valuation of about $2.5 billion, highlighting growing investor confidence in the sector. Experts argued the increase in Indian government initiatives has also helped boost demand. Schemes such as Make in India, production-linked Incentives, and the push to reduce reliance on concentrated global supply chains, coupled with the growing global acceptance of Indian innovation, are driving investors towards deep tech sectors such as robotics. They said demand will only increase. "Most of these companies are at an inflection point. They spent seven or eight years building the business, but hardly anyone funded them," said Sumeet Seraf, founder of Equity 360, an investment banking and financial advisory firm. "Now, once they get that funding, these companies can see a J-curve kind of growth from here. If that happens, someone has to do a second round of funding, then a third round." In terms of the increase in the average cheque size from $1.8 million in 2025 to $3.5 million so far in 2026, experts pointed out that the average round size alone is not sufficient to draw conclusions about an entire sector. "One explanation is that the ecosystem is maturing, and companies have reached stages where larger amounts of capital are required to execute their growth plans. It also depends on the quality and nature of investment opportunities available during a given period. Therefore, it would be premature to conclude that investors are simply becoming more selective," added Majumdar of Unicorn India Ventures. Amid the optimism, India's robotics sector continues to lag its global peers. Indian robotics startups raised only $52.9 million in 2025, compared with $5.6 billion raised by their US counterparts and $2.7 billion raised by Chinese robotics startups. Founders argue that building robotics products in India is challenging because many specialized components still need to be imported. "Many of the specialized components used inside the robot are not available from Indian manufacturers. That's one of the biggest challenges we face," said Rohit Ranjan, founder and CEO of NeoGenTech, a startup that has built a female humanoid robot. "I have spent almost Rs.8 lakh to Rs.10 lakh on components alone. If a component costs Rs.20,000, importing it from the US or China increases the cost to Rs.35,000-40,000." Even technically strong founders often struggle with go-to-market strategies and with rapidly testing and iterating in real manufacturing environments, experts argued. "In India, the focus on R&D is missing. Based on the funding we get, it becomes hard to build in India. That's why people go overseas," said a founder of a robotics startup who has been trying to raise a seed round for his venture. India's R&D expenditure remains below 1% of GDP, compared with roughly 3.5% in the US and 2.6% in China....