GAIL (India) has raised its startup investment fund from Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore for FY25, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri announced. 

The fund expansion is a part of GAIL’s ‘PANKH’ initiative aimed at empowering young innovators and boosting energy sector innovation. The minister highlighted that during FY25, GAIL’s fund increase underscores the government's focus on entrepreneurship-led economic growth.

GAIL is currently supporting 38 startups engaged in areas such as natural gas, pipelines, petrochemicals, renewable energy, and energy storage. These ventures have created nearly 1,000 employment opportunities over the past three years. The broader oil and gas sector is also contributing to this entrepreneurial surge.

Six Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have created a combined startup fund of Rs 550 crore, with Rs 290 crore already invested across 303 startups. India now has more than 1.5 lakh recognised startups and 120 unicorns.  The Union Budget 2025–26 has earmarked Rs 10,000 crore under the Fund of Funds scheme to support the development of deeptech and AI-enabled platforms.