Govt releases first cheques under Rs 1 lakh crore RDI Fund, five deep tech startups make the cut
Dhruva Space, Endure Air, ETRNL Energy, Noccarc Robotics and IISTEM Research become the first cohort to sign agreements under the Research, Development and Innovation Scheme, with the Technology Development Board acting as second-level fund manager.
The Technology Development Board (TDB) on 13 May signed its first agreements with five emerging technology enterprises and made the first fund disbursement under the Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme, the Government of India's flagship push to channel public capital into private sector deep tech R&D.
The move marks the first time central money has flowed under a scheme specifically designed to de-risk private innovation at the prototype-to-product stage, a gap Indian startups have long struggled to cross.
The agreements were exchanged at a ceremony in New Delhi attended by Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh, Principal Scientific Adviser Prof Ajay Kumar Sood, DST Secretary, TDB Chairperson Prof Abhay Karandikar, TDB Secretary Rajesh Kumar Pathak, and C-DOT CEO Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay. In a live electronic transfer initiated on stage by the minister, Rs 50 crore was disbursed to Bengaluru-based IISTEM Research as its first tranche.
What the RDI Scheme actually is
Approved by the Union Cabinet on 1 July 2025 and launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3 November 2025 at the ESTIC event, the RDI Scheme aims to deploy Rs 1 lakh crore over six years, including Rs 20,000 crore in FY 2025-26, to back private sector enterprises working on sunrise and strategic technologies.
The fund is housed under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), with TDB and BIRAC each receiving an initial allocation of Rs 2,000 crore as second-level fund managers. Eligible Technology Entities must be at Technology Readiness Level 4 to 6, registered in India, and controlled by resident Indian citizens.
Funding is structured as long-term loans at 3% to 4% interest with tenures of 12 to 15 years, equity participation of up to 25%, or a hybrid debt to equity structure. According to TDB Secretary Rajesh Kumar Pathak, the first call for proposals went live on 1 February 2026, and by 30 April 2026, the board had received 124 proposals worth over Rs 25,000 crore, with funding asks of more than Rs 10,000 crore from the scheme itself.
The five companies signing the first agreements
Dhruva Space (Hyderabad, Telangana) secured Rs 105 crore for Project Garud, a next-generation 500 kg-class satellite platform with a modular communication payload. The firm aims to build a production-ready platform for constellation-scale deployment across telecom, earth observation and national security use cases. Co-founder and CTO Abhay Egoor described it as the industrialisation of satellite manufacturing from India.
Endure Air Systems (Noida, Uttar Pradesh) received backing for Sabal 200, an indigenous unmanned helicopter platform built to carry payloads above 200 kilograms. It is designed for high altitude and rugged conditions, with applications across logistics, disaster response, surveillance and strategic deployments.
ETRNL Energy (Maharashtra) will use its allocation to develop and manufacture advanced lithium-ion battery cells based on a patented three-dimensional electrode architecture, to reshape domestic cell design as India scales up electric mobility and grid storage.
Noccarc Robotics (Pune, Maharashtra), founded by IIT Kanpur alumni and previously backed by Indian Angel Network, SIDBI, DST and BIRAC, is building the Intelligent Mobile Life Support System, a portable ICU-grade emergency and critical care platform engineered for Indian conditions.
IISTEM Research (Bengaluru, Karnataka) secured the first tranche disbursement of Rs 50 crore for first-in-class cell therapies targeting two globally incurable diseases, geographic atrophy associated with age-related macular degeneration, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
How does the RDI Scheme channel public money into private deep tech
Unlike traditional R&D grants that hand out non-recoverable money, the RDI Scheme operates as a revolving fund. ANRF disburses capital to second-level fund managers such as TDB and BIRAC, which then evaluate proposals from startups and corporates and release funds as low-interest loans, equity, or a mix of both.
The structure is designed to keep public money inside the innovation ecosystem. Repayments from funded firms flow back to the same pool for redeployment, rather than returning to the Consolidated Fund of India. Pathak has indicated that the design allows the corpus to keep working for up to 50 years.
The trade-off is that recipients must repay, share equity, or both. That filters out experimental research at TRL 1 to 3, which continues to be supported through other DST and ANRF programmes.
What happens next
Prof Ajay Kumar Sood said public money will only be a starting catalyst, with the hope that the Rs 1 lakh crore commitment will crowd in five to ten times more from the private sector. TDB has approved 22 projects in total, and the remaining cohort will sign agreements in the coming weeks.
ANRF is simultaneously evaluating more second-level fund managers, with over 20 candidates, including alternative investment funds presenting in recent sessions. For India's deep tech ecosystem, the first five names set a template: companies with indigenous IP, in sectors where private capital alone has historically been hesitant to underwrite the risk.
Original Article
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