New Delhi, Sept. 29 -- As India seeks to close the gap with AI leaders the US and China, early-stage AI startups are securing investment commitments faster, with term sheets arriving in as little as two weeks, compared with about a month previously, according to several industry executives.

The shift comes at a time when the country has seen a steady rise in funding in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, from $340 million in 2020 to $1.1 billion in 2025 and $1.4 billion so far this year, according to data platform Tracxn.

However, the time taken to raise capital varies depending on both the strength of the startup and its stage of development. For the strongest AI teams, particularly those led by founders with deep technical experti...