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The RDI Fund's First 22 Companies: ₹2,192 Crore Approved, ₹376 Crore Paid

The Technology Development Board, the first manager to lend from India's ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation Fund, has approved 22 companies for ₹2,192 crore against projects worth ₹4,744 crore. By 30 September it had paid ten of them ₹375.69 crore. Here is the full list, what each is building, and what our data says about them.

Published 04 Oct 2026

Approved RDI support: ₹2,192 crore
Total project cost: ₹4,744 crore
Paid out by 30 Sep 2026: ₹375.69 crore, to 10 companies
Share approved for space: 25%

India's Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet on 1 July 2025 with ₹1 lakh crore to spend over six years, and launched by the Prime Minister on 3 November 2025. It does not fund companies itself. The money sits with a special purpose fund under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) and reaches companies through second-level fund managers, which pick the projects.

The first two managers, the Technology Development Board (TDB) and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), were approved on 12 January 2026. TDB opened its call on 4 February. By 30 April it had received 124 proposals, reviewed 51 and approved 22. Its own compendium of the scheme, published on 2 June, lists all 22 with the project, the cost, the support and the instrument; Business Standard reported the amounts on 20 July.

This is the first cohort. Below, every company on it, what has actually been paid, and what our records show about who they are.

The 22 approvals, largest first

Figures in ₹ crore, from TDB's compendium. The scheme funds up to half of a project's assessed cost; the company raises the rest. OCD means optionally convertible debentures: debt that can turn into equity.

TDB's first RDI cohort, approved by 30 April 2026 (source: TDB RDI compendium, 2 June 2026)
Company	Project	RDI support	Project cost	Instrument
The ePlane Company (Ubifly)	e200X electric air taxi	285.00	570.00	OCD
Tejas Networks	5G Advanced and 6G network equipment	250.00	529.00	Loan
Ather Energy	Electric two-wheeler electronics stack	211.89	432.78	Loan
Agnikul Cosmos	Agnibaan reusable launch vehicle	200.00	529.00	OCD
ideaForge	YETI heavy-lift VTOL drone	151.00	302.00	Loan
QNu Labs	Quantum secure and sensing networks	150.00	300.00	OCD
BigEndian Semiconductors	Secure AI chip for surveillance	130.00	260.00	OCD
Eyestem Research	Cell therapies for dry AMD and lung fibrosis	125.00	250.00	Loan
Manastu Space	Green propulsion for satellites and launchers	116.00	277.63	OCD
Dhruva Space	500 kg-class communication satellite platform	105.00	210.00	Loan
e-TRNL Energy	Lithium-ion cells with 3D electrodes	94.00	191.00	OCD
Peptris	AI-discovered drug candidates to clinic	86.00	172.00	OCD
Astrome	Space-based AI-ELINT satellite constellation	64.05	128.11	OCD
GalaxEye	OptoSAR satellite, under 0.5 m resolution	63.84	247.69	OCD
REPLUS Engitech	Immersion-cooled battery thermal management	42.75	85.50	OCD
Multi Nano Sense	MEMS multi-gas sensor chip	37.51	75.02	OCD
EndureAir Systems	Sabal-200 unmanned helicopter	30.01	60.03	OCD
Serigen Mediproducts	Silk-protein medical devices	20.00	44.62	OCD
Noccarc	Portable ICU-grade life support	11.41	22.83	OCD
Neo-Seekermetals	Critical metals from e-waste and battery waste	10.00	44.00	OCD
ThinkMetal	Metal 3D printing of tools	6.70	13.41	OCD
Endimension	AI reporting of brain CT and MRI	3.00	8.00	OCD

Approved is not paid

The approvals add up to ₹2,192.32 crore. The money moves in tranches, tied to milestones, and only after a company has raised its matching share from non-government sources and asked TDB for the next release.

Five companies signed agreements first, on 13 May 2026: Dhruva Space, EndureAir Systems, e-TRNL Energy, Eyestem Research and Noccarc. Eyestem received ₹50 crore that day, the scheme's first disbursement. The government announced The ePlane Company's approval on 23 September; GalaxEye signed on 24 September, Agnikul Cosmos on 25 September and Multi Nano Sense on 29 September. ideaForge holds a letter of intent dated 27 July that sets 4% simple interest; QNu Labs said on 9 September that it had signed its final term sheet.

In its clarification of 1 October, TDB said it had paid ₹375.69 crore to 10 of the 22 companies by 30 September, out of ₹490 crore the fund had allocated it for six months. That is about 17% of what was approved. TDB did not name the ten.

Loans and convertibles, not grants

Seventeen of the 22 approvals are optionally convertible debentures. Five are straight loans: Dhruva Space, Eyestem Research, Ather Energy, Tejas Networks and ideaForge. Several reports called these grants; the scheme gives none.

TDB's own page describes collateral-free lending of up to half the project cost, repayable over up to 15 years from TRL 4 or 12 years from TRL 6, with a two-year moratorium after the project ends. Reported rates run from 2% to 4%: Mint reported 2 to 3% for Ather Energy, whose term sheet was still being finalised in June, and ideaForge's letter of intent says 4% simple interest. TDB can also take equity of up to 25%.

What our data says about the 22

Twenty-one of the 22 are on the Startup India list we build on. The exception is Tejas Networks, a listed company. Three of the 22 are listed (Ather Energy, ideaForge and Tejas Networks); TDB's own count is 14 startups, 5 MSMEs and 3 listed companies.

Eighteen of the 21 were already in our deep-tech set, Ather Energy as a maybe and the rest as a yes. BigEndian Semiconductors, Endimension and Neo-Seekermetals were not; TDB's selection after technical review is strong evidence, and we have added them. We have also recorded each approval as a round on the company's page.

Fifteen of the 21 have patent applications matched to them in our data: Ather Energy has 260, ideaForge 35, Noccarc 29 and QNu Labs 20. Six have none matched: Manastu Space, REPLUS Engitech, Multi Nano Sense, BigEndian Semiconductors, Neo-Seekermetals and Endimension. A match is by applicant name, and our patent record is concentrated on filings from 2022 onward, so no match does not mean no patent.

They are not young companies. The median was incorporated in 2017; ideaForge dates from 2007 and Dhruva Space from 2012. Only two were incorporated after 2022: Neo-Seekermetals in 2023 and BigEndian Semiconductors in 2024.

Where the money went

Grouped by what the projects do, the ₹2,193 crore the 22 project sheets add up to splits as follows. Space is the largest single theme by some distance.

Space (Agnikul, Manastu, Dhruva, Astrome, GalaxEye): ₹548.89 crore, 25%
Electric aircraft and drones (ePlane, ideaForge, EndureAir): ₹466.01 crore, 21%
Telecom (Tejas Networks): ₹250 crore, 11%
Health and biotech (Eyestem, Peptris, Serigen, Noccarc, Endimension): ₹245.41 crore, 11%
Electric vehicle electronics (Ather): ₹211.89 crore, 10%
Chips and sensors (BigEndian, Multi Nano Sense): ₹167.51 crore, 8%
Quantum (QNu Labs): ₹150 crore, 7%
Batteries and critical metals (e-TRNL, REPLUS, Neo-Seekermetals): ₹146.75 crore, 7%
Manufacturing (ThinkMetal): ₹6.70 crore, under 1%

Where they are

By TDB's own addresses, eight are in Karnataka, eight in Maharashtra, three in Tamil Nadu, two in Telangana and one in Uttar Pradesh. Proposals followed the same pattern: of the first 124, Karnataka sent 39 and Maharashtra 29.

Karnataka's weight is striking against our data. It holds 15% of the deep-tech companies on our list but sent 31% of the proposals and won 36% of the approvals. Gujarat holds 7% of the companies and sent 4 proposals; none was approved in the first cohort.

The second cohort, and a pause

By 1 October, the government said, TDB had evaluated 99 proposals and selected 35: the 22 above and 13 more, 11 of them deep-tech startups. The 13 have not been named, and on 30 September they were still waiting for letters of intent.

TDB closed its call at 5 pm on 30 September after receiving close to 330 proposals. It said the closure was administrative, that there was "absolutely no shortage of fund", and that the call would reopen once the backlog is assessed. Business Standard, citing a DST source, reported that demand had outrun the capital TDB received. The Ken reported that the scheme's allocation for 2025-26 had been cut from ₹20,000 crore to ₹3,000 crore.

Questions about how projects were picked

Projects are chosen by a 12-member investment committee, 11 of them from the private sector, and approved by TDB's board. Asked in Parliament whether any funded company had also received money from an organisation represented on the committee, the government answered on 30 July with a list: 15 of the 22, linked to seven of the committee's members, some companies to more than one. By our count those 15 were approved for ₹1,377.81 crore, 63% of the cohort's total, the figure the Indian Express reported in August.

The same answer said TDB has a conflict-of-interest policy. The government has called reports of favouritism misleading, said members recuse themselves where they have an interest, noted that 15 of the 22 were also chosen by separate Ministry of Education panels for Bharat Innovates 2026, and said only one of the 13 second-cohort firms has a link to a member.

We report this because it bears on how readers weigh the list. We have no information beyond the published reporting and the government's reply.

Sources

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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The RDI Fund's First 22 Companies: ₹2,192 Crore Approved, ₹376 Crore Paid

The 22 approvals, largest first

Approved is not paid

Loans and convertibles, not grants

What our data says about the 22

Where the money went

Where they are

The second cohort, and a pause

Questions about how projects were picked

In our data

Sources

Related briefings

Have a question on this - or want it researched for you?