As India moves towards digital sovereignty and AI leadership, homegrown cloud providers are building purpose-driven infrastructure. In this interaction with StartupTalky, Srishti Baweja, Co-Founder and Whole-Time Director of E2E Networks Ltd, talks about creating India-first cloud infrastructure, launching the country’s largest H200 GPU cluster, and helping startups, researchers, and public sector teams access powerful, local, and affordable compute. She also shares her journey as a woman in deeptech and explains how E2E is making AI and cloud more inclusive for ‘Bharat’.
StartupTalky: India’s public cloud market remains dominated by global hyperscalers. What specific gaps in their offerings led to the birth and evolution of E2E Cloud?
Ms. Baweja: Most global hyperscalers weren’t built with India in mind, especially when it came to AI workloads, regulatory compliance, and cost transparency. Our research revealed that Indian startups and researchers require high-performance infrastructure without hidden charges, billing complexity, or foreign data laws.
E2E was born for India’s digital independence as India’s homegrown cloud infrastructure. From day one, we have focused on India-first infrastructure, featuring on-demand GPUs, zero data egress fees, predictable pricing, and full data residency. Our evolution has been guided by the needs of Indian innovators rather than a one-size-fits-all cloud model.
StartupTalky: You recently launched India’s largest NVIDIA H200 GPU cluster. What does this milestone mean for Indian AI startups and researchers seeking high-performance yet affordable compute?
Ms. Baweja: Launching India’s largest H200 GPU cluster is a crucial step in assisting Indian innovators to gain a global edge. Until now, most startups and research teams were compelled to look overseas for cutting-edge compute. That meant higher costs, long wait times, and compliance hurdles.
With our H200 cluster, anyone in India, from a solo researcher to a GenAI startup, can get world-class GPU power instantly, affordably, and locally. It’s our way of levelling the playing field and helping India’s AI builders stay competitive without compromising speed, performance, or budget.
StartupTalky: Could you elaborate on how the new sovereign cloud platform helps Indian enterprises and public institutions enhance data privacy and regulatory compliance?
Ms. Baweja: Our sovereign cloud platform is built to meet India’s data protection laws and compliance mandates. Thus, limiting exposure to foreign regulations. We’ve embedded security by design, and we’re offering DPDP toolkits, audit trails, and architectural guidance to help enterprises and government teams simplify compliance without compromising performance or scalability.
India’s new data protection laws go beyond local storage. They demand jurisdictional control and infrastructure that aligns with national priorities. Our Sovereign Cloud Platform is built exactly for that. Hosted entirely in India, it ensures sensitive data, whether from the public sector, BFSI, or healthcare, is shielded from foreign oversight and supports full compliance with data protection requirements, including provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act.
Furthermore, we are also focusing on building a DPDP Compliance Toolkit, offering architectural guidance. This will enable the enterprises to navigate compliance proactively. The Sovereign Cloud Platform makes data security and sovereignty foundational to digital growth.
StartupTalky: Why does ‘Bharat’ India’s next billion users need a fundamentally different kind of cloud infrastructure? And how is E2E Cloud building for this demographic?
Ms. Baweja: Our next billion users operate with limited connectivity, lower budgets, and highly localised needs. Traditional cloud wasn’t designed with them in mind. At E2E, we’re building infrastructure that works for them. Platforms like TIR give small-town developers and startups access to pre-configured AI environments and regional language models, eliminating the need for large tech teams or capital.
Our pay-as-you-go pricing model and local support help Bharat’s innovators move from idea to impact faster. Along with enabling cloud adoption, we’re helping Bharat leapfrog into AI-first innovation.
StartupTalky: From IPO to GPU-powered AI readiness, E2E has consistently focused on strategic moves. What were the biggest financial or governance decisions that shaped its credibility in a capital-intensive industry?
Ms. Baweja: Our IPO on NSE Emerge in 2018 established a strong foundation for corporate governance and helped us develop public market discipline early on. This dedication to transparency and long-term thinking set the stage for one of our most important moments: a strategic investment and partnership with Larsen & Toubro. This alliance not only supports our vision of building sovereign, AI-optimised cloud infrastructure in India but also helps us speed up innovation for Indian businesses, particularly in regulated sectors where performance, compliance, and control are critical.
With L&T, we’re growing responsibly, staying focused on our India-first mission while we continue to improve our tested cloud platform. Our software stack is consistently optimised for high availability, easy scaling, and a developer-first experience. We’re not just adding features; we’re strengthening reliability at every level.
StartupTalky: E2E Cloud listed on NSE Emerge in 2018, a not so common move for a deeptech company. Could you share some operational or financial metrics that reflect your growth since the listing?
Ms. Baweja: Since our listing, we have expanded into cutting-edge GPUs like H100 and H200. We launched India’s largest clusters and served thousands of AI builders, including early-stage startups and public sector labs. Our infrastructure now includes new data centres, such as the one in Chennai, which is designed for low latency and regional resilience. We supported national initiatives under MeitY’s AI Mission and built tools like the TIR platform to promote AI adoption in India. Our growth also focuses on the entire ecosystem. We measure our impact by the number of Indian innovators we empower, not just the revenue we generate.
StartupTalky: As one of the few women founders in India’s deeptech space, what barriers did you face in the infra-tech ecosystem, and how have those experiences shaped your leadership?
Ms. Baweja: Deeptech is still a space with few women, and infra-tech even more so. I’ve walked into rooms where I wasn’t expected to speak on hardware, compliance, or AI infrastructure, but I did, and I do. Those early experiences taught me resilience and clarity of purpose.
It shaped my stance on leadership, too; I believe in empathy, focus, and a commitment to building inclusive teams. At E2E, we create places where diverse talent can grow and take charge. The journey has been challenging, but it has shown me that breaking down barriers often begins with showing up and staying dedicated.
StartupTalky: India is positioning itself as an AI-first economy through initiatives like Digital India and Atmanirbhar Bharat. How does E2E’s mission align with this national vision?
Ms. Baweja: We’ve always believed that India should own its digital future. E2E’s mission of providing sovereign, AI-ready infrastructure directly supports India’s push for digital independence under initiatives like Digital India and Atmanirbhar Bharat. As a Level 1 GPU cloud provider under the MeitY AI mission, we power everything from regional language models to health tech AI.
Our infrastructure is made for India, with full data residency, lower latency, and no foreign dependencies. We’re proud to be building the foundation that helps Indian institutions, researchers, and startups build world-class AI right here at home.
StartupTalky: With rapid growth in AI and GenAI workloads across sectors, demand for GPU infrastructure is rising sharply in India. How is E2E scaling its AI-ready cloud capabilities to meet this demand?
Ms. Baweja: We have scaled our GPU capacity with multiple H100 and H200 clusters, supported by NVIDIA InfiniBand, to allow for fast training and inference. These clusters handle everything from LLM fine-tuning to GenAI applications. Our plan includes over 20 new services, and we are opening more data centres to meet regional needs. Most importantly, our self-serve cloud makes it easy to get started.
India’s demand for GPUs is growing, and we are expanding to meet it. We have already launched H100 and H200 clusters connected by InfiniBand, designed specifically for high-throughput training, inference, and real-time AI tasks. Our infrastructure is self-serve, scalable, and built to reduce obstacles without any capacity limits. We are also expanding regionally with new data centres and deploying AI-optimised tools on TIR to cut down the time-to-production for GenAI startups and research labs. We ensure that you can move quickly and stay within budget while maintaining performance.
StartupTalky: Cloud infrastructure is not just about scale but purpose. How do you ensure E2E stays inclusive, reaching Tier 2/3 developers, early-stage startups, and public sector innovators alike?
Ms. Baweja: Inclusivity is at the core of how we design our platform. Our TIR platform offers one-click access to AI stacks and pretrained models, making it easy for Tier 2/3 developers, MSMEs, and public sector teams to get started. We’ve partnered with academic institutions, incubators, and government bodies to run AI Labs-as-a-Service and provide mentorship. With pay-as-you-go pricing and localised support, we’ve made sure that great ideas aren’t limited by location or resources. Everyone deserves access to world-class cloud, and we’re making that happen.
StartupTalky: What is your long-term vision for E2E Cloud, both as a technology company and as a symbol of India’s digital sovereignty?
Ms. Baweja: We have envisioned E2E to be India’s trusted digital backbone, the quiet enabler behind every AI breakthrough, startup launch, and sovereign tech milestone. As a technology company, we’re focused on building cloud infrastructure that scales with India’s ambitions. But as a symbol of digital sovereignty, we aim to empower every Indian innovator to build on infrastructure that’s affordable, compliant, and deeply local. Our long-term vision is to make “built in India, for the world” the global benchmark for sovereign cloud innovation. That’s the legacy we’re working towards.
Subham Kumar
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