Insights · funding brief
Space Took a Quarter of the RDI Fund's First Approvals. AI Took ₹3 Crore.
We set TDB's first 22 RDI approvals against where India's deep-tech companies and patent filings are. Space took a quarter of the money from 2% of the companies on our list. AI took 0.1%. Karnataka sent nearly a third of the proposals; Gujarat sent four.
Published 11 Oct 2026
- Space share of first-cohort RDI money
- 25%
- Space share of deep-tech companies on our list
- 2.1%
- AI proposals approved
- 1 of 17
- Karnataka's share of proposals
- 31%
The Technology Development Board approved 22 projects for ₹2,192 crore in the first round of India's Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund. We grouped the projects by what they build and set each group against two measures from our own data: how many deep-tech companies work in that area, and how many patent applications we hold in it.
The comparison is not a test of whether TDB chose well. A fund that lends up to half of a project's cost will favour capital-heavy hardware, and the first cohort reflects who applied in the first three months. It does show where the scheme's money is going relative to where the field is, and that is worth knowing for anyone deciding whether to apply.
Money against companies and patents
Space and mobility, which here means an electric air taxi and an electric two-wheeler electronics stack, took ₹1,046 crore between them, nearly half the cohort. Space alone took 25% of the money; it accounts for 2.1% of the deep-tech companies on our list and 964 of the patent applications in our sector index. Health and life sciences is the reverse: about a fifth of the companies and the largest patent pool we hold, but 11% of the money.
| Area (cohort companies) | RDI support | Share of RDI | Deep-tech companies on our list | Patent applications in our index |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space (Agnikul, Manastu, Dhruva, Astrome, GalaxEye) | 548.89 | 25.0% | 611 (2.1%) | 964 |
| Mobility: electric aircraft and two-wheelers (ePlane, Ather) | 496.89 | 22.7% | 3,198 (10.8%) | 50,133 |
| Communications (Tejas Networks) | 250.00 | 11.4% | 323 (1.1%) | 56,841 |
| Health and life sciences (Eyestem, Peptris, Serigen, Noccarc) | 242.41 | 11.1% | 5,754 (19.4%) | 107,616 |
| Drones, robotics and manufacturing (ideaForge, EndureAir, ThinkMetal) | 187.71 | 8.6% | 4,747 (16.0%) | 24,370 |
| Semiconductors and sensors (BigEndian, Multi Nano Sense) | 167.51 | 7.6% | 456 (1.5%) | 6,122 |
| Quantum (QNu Labs) | 150.00 | 6.8% | 208 (0.7%) | 525 |
| Energy and climate (e-TRNL, REPLUS, Neo-Seekermetals) | 146.75 | 6.7% | 3,840 (12.9%) | 65,493 |
| AI (Endimension) | 3.00 | 0.1% | 3,050 (10.3%) | 48,204 |
Why space and quantum punch above their weight
Space and quantum are small fields in India by company count, with 611 and 208 deep-tech companies on our list, but they are where single projects are largest and where the government is the anchor customer. QNu Labs' quantum networks project costs ₹300 crore, Manastu Space's propulsion programme ₹277.63 crore and Dhruva Space's satellite platform ₹210 crore. Project finance at half the cost is built for programmes of that size.
The patent counts point the same way. Space and quantum together hold under 1,500 patent applications in our index against more than 100,000 for health. These are fields where the work is concentrated in a few well-funded companies, so a fund that picks large, advanced projects will find a high share of them there.
What TDB was sent, and what it approved
TDB publishes its own sector count. By 30 April it had received 124 proposals and approved 22, but it had reviewed only 51, so the rates below reflect the order of review as well as quality.
| TDB sector | Proposals | Approved | Approval rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deep technology (quantum, robotics, space) | 45 | 13 | 29% |
| Energy security, transition and climate | 24 | 3 | 13% |
| Biotech, pharma and medical devices | 22 | 4 | 18% |
| AI and its applications | 17 | 1 | 6% |
| Digital economy | 9 | 1 | 11% |
| Others | 7 | 0 | 0% |
| All | 124 | 22 | 18% |
AI: 17 proposals, one approval, ₹3 crore
AI sent the fourth-largest group of proposals and won one approval: Endimension, ₹3 crore toward an ₹8 crore project for AI that reports brain abnormalities on CT and MRI scans. That is 0.1% of the money, in an area that holds 10.3% of the deep-tech companies on our list and over 48,000 patent applications.
The headline understates AI's place in the cohort. Peptris discovers drug molecules with AI and is counted under biotech; BigEndian's ₹130 crore is for an AI chip and is counted under semiconductors; Astrome's constellation is for AI-based signal intelligence and is counted under space. AI as a component did well. AI as a product did not.
Our reading is that the instrument explains most of this. A loan or convertible debenture for half a project's cost suits a programme with large, lumpy spending on hardware, test facilities or clinical work. Most AI companies spend on people and compute, and raise equity in smaller steps. Our own data fits that: of the 3,050 AI companies on our list, 42 have raised ₹25 crore or more privately.
Health is split across two managers
Health's 11% is TDB's share only. The scheme's second manager, the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), runs a separate ₹2,000 crore fund for biotechnology. By July it had shortlisted eight projects worth ₹390.35 crore in all; by the end of September it had not committed capital to any of them.
The five BIRAC picks named in the press lean towards industrial and agricultural biology: enzymes and yeast for ethanol, seaweed feedstock, vitamin K2 made by engineered bacteria, and biological crop protection, with one cancer genomics company. When BIRAC's money moves it will add more to biology than to medicine.
States: Karnataka sends, Gujarat does not
The 22 approvals sit in five states. Karnataka and Maharashtra have eight each, Tamil Nadu three, Telangana two and Uttar Pradesh one. Proposals were more spread out, but not in proportion to where companies are.
Karnataka sent 39 of the first 124 proposals, 8.8 for every 1,000 deep-tech companies it has on our list. Maharashtra, which has more such companies, sent 29, or 5.6 per 1,000. Gujarat has 2,181 deep-tech companies on our list, as many as Uttar Pradesh, and sent 4. Delhi sent 11 and had none approved in the first cohort.
| State | Proposals | Approved | Deep-tech companies on our list | Proposals per 1,000 companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karnataka | 39 | 8 | 4,420 (14.9%) | 8.8 |
| Maharashtra | 29 | 8 | 5,138 (17.3%) | 5.6 |
| Tamil Nadu | 14 | 3 | 3,156 (10.6%) | 4.4 |
| Delhi | 11 | 0 | 2,343 (7.9%) | 4.7 |
| Telangana | 8 | 2 | 2,385 (8.0%) | 3.4 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 8 | 1 | 2,199 (7.4%) | 3.6 |
| Gujarat | 4 | 0 | 2,181 (7.4%) | 1.8 |
| Kerala | 2 | 0 | 1,197 (4.0%) | 1.7 |
| Other states | 9 | 0 | 6,650 (22.4%) | 1.4 |
What to watch
Three things will tell whether this pattern holds. The 13 second-cohort companies, once named, will show whether TDB's later reviews spread the money more widely; TDB says 11 of them are deep-tech startups. BIRAC's first agreements will fill in biotechnology. And the first venture funds approved to invest RDI money will show whether equity, the instrument AI and software companies use, opens the scheme to them.
Location details: TDB's compendium and its later press releases disagree on four addresses (ePlane, GalaxEye, Multi Nano Sense and Noccarc). We use the later releases for the first three and Pune for Noccarc, as the compendium and the government's Rajya Sabha answer give it. The state totals come out the same either way, and match TDB's own chart.
How we counted
Deep-tech companies are Startup India-recognised companies with a yes or maybe deep-tech verdict in our data, 29,669 in all, by their registered state and our primary sector tag. Patent counts are applications tagged to each sector in our index; an application can carry more than one tag, so the column does not add up to a total. The grouping of the 22 projects into areas is ours; TDB's own sector labels are in the second table.
In our data
Startups
Sources
- TDB: RDI Scheme compendium (2 June 2026) ↗
- TDB: RDIF, TDB as Second Level Fund Manager ↗
- RDI Fund (ANRF): scheme site ↗
- Business Standard: TDB-RDI selects 22 deeptech startups with project cost of ₹4,744 crore (20 July 2026) ↗
- PIB: Rajya Sabha reply on RDI progress, including BIRAC's shortlist (23 July 2026) ↗
- Business Standard: First set of biotech startups picked under the RDI push (14 July 2026) ↗
- Business Standard: TDB pauses accepting applications under RDI fund amid capital constraints (30 September 2026) ↗
- Business Standard: TDB selects 13 companies under the RDI Fund's second cohort (8 September 2026) ↗
This briefing is AI-generated from Deeptech Navigator's patent and startup data and lightly reviewed before publishing. Treat it as a starting point, not professional advice - figures are directional, so verify before relying on any number. The platform takes no responsibility for decisions made on it.
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