Insights · funding brief
The RDI Fund Pays Half. How Many Indian Deeptech Companies Can Raise the Other Half?
The ₹1 lakh crore RDI Fund will finance no more than half of a project; the company must find the rest. The first 22 approvals needed a median ₹101 crore each from their own or private sources. In the past year, 47 deep-tech companies on our list closed a private round of ₹100 crore or more.
Published 06 Oct 2026
- Company share of the first 22 projects
- ₹2,552 crore (54%)
- Median company share per project
- ₹101 crore
- Deep-tech companies with a ₹100 crore+ round in the past year
- 47
- Proposals TDB received by 30 September
- close to 330
Most coverage of India's Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund leads with its size: ₹1 lakh crore over six years. The rule that decides who can use it gets less attention. Under the scheme's implementation guidelines, financing "shall be limited to not more than 50 per cent of the total assessed cost of the project. The balance financing should be arranged by the project proponent from self or commercial sources." An empowered group of secretaries can relax the limit for exceptional projects.
So every rupee of RDI money needs a rupee from the company's own balance sheet, its investors or a commercial lender. When a fund manager invests in equity instead of lending, the cap is half of the value of each funding round. Either way, the fund can only move as fast as private money moves with it.
We looked at what the first cohort needed to match, and at how many deep-tech companies on our list have raised rounds of that size.
What the first 22 had to bring
The Technology Development Board (TDB), the first manager to lend from the fund, approved 22 projects worth ₹4,743.99 crore by 30 April 2026 and committed ₹2,192.32 crore. The companies' own share is therefore about ₹2,552 crore, or 54% of the total.
Thirteen of the 22 took the full 50%. Nine took less: GalaxEye's ₹63.84 crore covers 25.8% of a ₹247.69 crore satellite programme, Manastu Space's ₹116 crore covers 41.8% of its ₹277.63 crore propulsion programme, and Neo-Seekermetals' ₹10 crore covers 22.7% of its recycling plant.
The median project cost ₹200.5 crore, and the median company share was ₹101 crore. Eleven companies had to find ₹100 crore or more; four needed under ₹25 crore.
| Company | Project cost | RDI support | Company share | RDI share of cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agnikul Cosmos | 529.00 | 200.00 | 329.00 | 37.8% |
| The ePlane Company (Ubifly) | 570.00 | 285.00 | 285.00 | 50.0% |
| Tejas Networks | 529.00 | 250.00 | 279.00 | 47.3% |
| Ather Energy | 432.78 | 211.89 | 220.89 | 49.0% |
| GalaxEye | 247.69 | 63.84 | 183.85 | 25.8% |
| Manastu Space | 277.63 | 116.00 | 161.63 | 41.8% |
| ideaForge | 302.00 | 151.00 | 151.00 | 50.0% |
| QNu Labs | 300.00 | 150.00 | 150.00 | 50.0% |
| BigEndian Semiconductors | 260.00 | 130.00 | 130.00 | 50.0% |
| Eyestem Research | 250.00 | 125.00 | 125.00 | 50.0% |
| Dhruva Space | 210.00 | 105.00 | 105.00 | 50.0% |
| e-TRNL Energy | 191.00 | 94.00 | 97.00 | 49.2% |
| Peptris | 172.00 | 86.00 | 86.00 | 50.0% |
| Astrome | 128.11 | 64.05 | 64.06 | 50.0% |
| REPLUS Engitech | 85.50 | 42.75 | 42.75 | 50.0% |
| Multi Nano Sense | 75.02 | 37.51 | 37.51 | 50.0% |
| Neo-Seekermetals | 44.00 | 10.00 | 34.00 | 22.7% |
| EndureAir Systems | 60.03 | 30.01 | 30.02 | 50.0% |
| Serigen Mediproducts | 44.62 | 20.00 | 24.62 | 44.8% |
| Noccarc | 22.83 | 11.41 | 11.42 | 50.0% |
| ThinkMetal | 13.41 | 6.70 | 6.71 | 50.0% |
| Endimension | 8.00 | 3.00 | 5.00 | 37.5% |
How many companies raise rounds that large
Our deep-tech set is 29,669 companies: Startup India-recognised firms whose work we judge to be deep tech. For 1,025 of them we hold a private funding amount on record. Of those, 449 have raised ₹25 crore or more in total and 203 have raised ₹100 crore or more.
The recent picture is thinner. In the twelve months to 30 September 2026, 193 deep-tech companies on our list closed a private round with a disclosed amount. 104 of those rounds were ₹25 crore or more, 66 were ₹50 crore or more, and 47 were ₹100 crore or more. The median largest round was ₹29 crore.
Set against the first cohort, that is the constraint. Half the approved projects needed ₹101 crore or more of matching money, and fewer than fifty deep-tech companies on our list raised a single round that size in a year.
By the scheme's own sectors
The scheme names its priority sectors. We mapped our sector tags onto them as closely as we could; the table counts companies whose recorded private funding, all rounds together, reaches each level.
| RDI priority area (our sectors) | Deep-tech companies | Private amount on record | Raised ₹25 crore+ | Raised ₹100 crore+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy, transition and climate (energy, climate) | 3,840 | 136 | 57 | 25 |
| Deep tech: quantum, space, robotics | 5,566 | 211 | 98 | 47 |
| AI and its applications (computing and AI) | 3,050 | 93 | 42 | 17 |
| Biotech, pharma and medical devices (health) | 5,754 | 233 | 98 | 40 |
| Digital agriculture (agri-food) | 1,433 | 37 | 11 | 7 |
| Strategic: semiconductors, defence, communications, materials, mobility | 7,629 | 264 | 122 | 59 |
| Other | 2,397 | 51 | 21 | 8 |
| All deep-tech companies | 29,669 | 1,025 | 449 | 203 |
Demand is already ahead of that pool
TDB received 124 proposals between February and April and close to 330 by the time it closed its call on 30 September. Close to 330 proposals in eight months, to one of the fund's managers, is more than three times the 104 deep-tech companies on our list that closed a private round of ₹25 crore or more in the past year.
That does not mean most applicants cannot match, because not every applicant needs a venture round. TDB counts 14 startups, 5 MSMEs and 3 listed companies in its first cohort; Ather Energy, ideaForge and Tejas Networks can match from their own balance sheets, and profitable MSMEs can match from revenue or bank debt, which our funding records do not capture. A startup can also raise its share after approval, since money is released in tranches as the matching contribution comes in.
It does mean that, for venture-backed startups, the scheme depends on the same investors who already fund them. Several of the first cohort raised in the months around approval: Peptris closed a ₹70 crore Series A in February 2026 (IAN Alpha Fund, Speciale Invest, Tenacity Ventures, BYT Ventures), e-TRNL Energy raised ₹27.4 crore the same month (IAN Alpha Fund, Navam Capital, Speciale Invest), Agnikul Cosmos raised ₹150 crore in November 2025, and QNu Labs raised ₹200 crore in a Series A1 in September 2026, saying that part of it is its own contribution to the ₹300 crore quantum networks project TDB approved. That is the matching rule working as designed: the RDI term sheet and the venture round arrived together.
Ten of the 21 cohort companies in our data have no private round with a disclosed amount on our record; two of those, Astrome and Multi Nano Sense, have only government grants. That says more about disclosure than about the companies, and it is exactly the gap a matching rule makes visible.
What would widen the pool
The scheme has a second route that addresses this directly. Besides lending through managers like TDB, the fund can invest in venture funds registered with SEBI as alternative investment funds. A fund that invests only in RDI-intensive technologies in the priority sectors can take up to half of its commitments from the RDI Fund; a fund with a broader remit takes a smaller share and must raise an equal amount privately for the same companies.
That route puts matching capital and RDI capital in the same vehicle, which is where most deep-tech startups raise anyway. Whether it changes the numbers above depends on how many such funds are approved and how fast they deploy. The Ken reported 162 applications from venture funds and 38 from focused research organisations by the end of September, proposing about ₹8,000 crore of commitments, and none approved yet. We track the fund managers separately; at 4 October, 207 Category I and II funds had been registered with SEBI since the scheme's launch by managers already in our records.
How we counted
Deep-tech companies are those on the Startup India list with a yes or maybe deep-tech verdict in our data. Private amounts come from funding rounds on our record with a disclosed amount; we exclude grants and the RDI rounds themselves. Where we hold both an estimated total and individual rounds for a company, we take the larger figure rather than adding them. Dollar amounts are converted at ₹83.
Only 3.5% of deep-tech companies on our list have a private amount on record, so every count here is a floor, not a census. The sector mapping is ours, not the scheme's. Company shares are computed from TDB's per-project figures as published; they add up to ₹8.63 crore more project cost and ₹0.84 crore more support than TDB's stated totals, a difference that does not change any figure we quote.
In our data
Startups
Sources
- RDI Fund: Implementation Guidelines (2026), para 7.2, funding limit ↗
- RDI Fund: Frequently Asked Questions (contributions to AIFs) ↗
- The Ken: A $12 billion R&D fund was meant to turbocharge startup funding (30 September 2026) ↗
- TDB: RDI Scheme compendium (2 June 2026) ↗
- TDB: RDIF, TDB as Second Level Fund Manager ↗
- TDB clarification on the closure of the RDI call (1 October 2026) ↗
- Inc42: QNu Labs nets ₹200 crore to scale R&D (9 September 2026) ↗
- Indian Startup News: QNu Labs raises ₹200 crore (9 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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