Agentic AI to make off-road vehicles autonomous. Called NeuralPilot, AI agents combine data from cameras, LiDAR, and GPS sensors to equip off-road vehicles with navigation, mission planning and real time monitoring. Works with Neuralbox, its hardware device which can be retrofitted on to any vehicle. $2.4M pre-seed round. Other investors in the round: Saka Ventures, Appreciate Capital, Astir Ventures, IIMA Ventures, SIDBI, Heston Castelino. Founders Mohan and Aditya were respectively Co-Founder & CTO and Head of Robotics and AI Engineering at Flo Mobility (robots for moving materials at construction sites, warehouses and mining operations). Founded in Dec 2023.

AI-native radio frequency satellite infrastructure, through a network of nanosatellites. The goal is to provide clients in industries across maritime, aviation, defence, oil and gas, and weather forecasting low-latency, high precision insights with 6x more data value per dollar, by capturing the entire radio spectrum compared to legacy satellites which are optical only (i.e. only capture images). Space trials are planned by end 2025, using ISRO's launch vehicle, with pilot customers next year. "Images cannot track moving assets like ships or aircraft. Today, companies take four to four-and-a-half hours to reach a decision. We bring that down to under ten minutes". $2.5M pre-seed round. Other investors in the round: Eaglewings Ventures. Founders: Ankit (Kurekshetra Univ.) and Raghav (NIT Jalandhar) started Xovian Research Tech in 2014, a space-tech consulting firm and ecosystem enabler in 2014. They started Xovian Aerospace in 2018.

AI robotics startup for manufacturing automation. The company has an AI vision platform that enables standard industrial robots to perform tasks without manual programming. Its first product, WeldT, uses computer vision to automate welding in manufacturing setups which produce a large variety of products. The tech is being adapted for other applications - painting, gluing, inspection and assembly. "Manufacturing as we know it is already fading. As AI evolves beyond the human form into Physical Intelligence, we are witnessing a once-in-a-century shift, where lean, adaptive, and precise automation will redefine how things are made." Aiming at 80 deployments across 20 customers within the next year. ₹6.5CR pre-seed round. Other investors in the round: Innovation Mission Punjab. Founders: CEO Anubhi (Masters in Automation Engineering from Newcastle University) was an automation specialist at Siemens in the UK for close to five years; CTO Amrit (IIT Delhi) ran his down dev firm prior to Terafac. Founded in 2023.

Algae-powered photo-bioreactors that integrate into building exteriors and containerised micro-farms to capture CO₂, release oxygen and generate commercially valuable biomass including vegan Omega-3 oil and spirulina-based protein. Installed in urban spaces as building panels and street furniture. Each square meter of the company’s BioMimetic Facade captures 52 kg of CO₂ annually and produces 28 kg of algal biomass. The company has a signed LoI with a German developer for an airport decarbonisation project. Research and production is in Coimbatore, while its HQ appears to be in London. Pre-seed round of an undisclosed amount. Founders: CEO Karthika is a Doctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Science from UAE University; CTO Rahul was a technical consultant at Stratema (in Germany); COO Gopakumar is from SBI.

BioTech manufacturing company providing animal-origin-free recombinant proteins. Recombinant proteins are proteins that are artificially produced using genetic engineering techniques, for use cases ranging from pharma manufacturing to cellular agriculture. ₹4CR seed round. The company will use funding to expand its bioreactor capacity and scale up production. Founders: Vipul was a Research Associate at TERI (3 years) and a Senior Scientist at Biocon (2 years); Dr. Jitendra Wagh is also from TERI. Founded in 2019, based in Vadodara.

Weapons systems design, development and manufacturing firm with a focus on advanced electronic fuzes, warheads and munition integration technology. $1.1M round. Founder & CEO Priyanka (Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar) was an intern at DRDO before spending some years in her family business (hospitality and construction). Founded in 2019.

SpaceTech startup incubated at IIT Madras. The company is developing autonomous, re-usable vehicles for in-orbit and microgravity experiments (i.e. commercial space research). Products that come out of such environments include special semiconductors, high purity protein crystals for pharma and artificial retinas. Microgravity environments are hard to recreate on earth and more options are needed in space as the International Space Station nears decommissioning in 2030. It aims to launch its first vehicle by Q1 2028. $1M pre-seed round. Founders: Aravind IB (IIT Madras) spent nine years as Graduate Research Assistant at the National Centre for Combustion Research & Development (NCCRD); Vishal graduated from VIT and Columbia with two years in-between joining Inbound; Abhijit (Goa Univ., Nalsar) was a Commanding Officer of the Indian Navy. Founded in Oct 2023.

Rocket manufacturing company with a flagship product - InfinityOne - that will deliver payloads of up to 350kg to altitudes of up to 800km (i.e. in Low Earth Orbit). The rocket has a reusable first stage which means it can relaunch within 24 hours. Its first commercial launch is planned for Jan 2028. $3M pre-seed round from undisclosed investors ("a family office and an angel investor"). Founders: CEO & CSO Dr. Ravindra Raj BM started Omspace straight out of IIT Madras; Chief Propulsion Engineer Maulik Mota joined after a brief stint at Essar Oil; Founded in Jun 2020.

Engineering simulations through high performance computing combined with "quantum-inspired" algorithms (i.e. algorithms that draw on quantum computing theory but use classical hardware, not quantum computers). Clients from the aerospace, automotive, energy and defence industry can use the platform for faster design cycles, with cheaper compute. The company has a collaboration with the US Air Force Research Lab, as well as paid pilots with ABB, BMW and Maruti Suzuki. $5M seed round. Other investors in the round: Transpose Platform, Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, ARKA Venture Labs, Grifiss Institute, Paradigm Shift Capital and Pranatech. Founders: Co-Founder & CEO Abhishek (BS, Aerospace from Rutgers; MEng from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) started this almost straight out of Rutgers; along with CTO Rut, also straight out of Rutgers; and COO Jash, after graduating from University College London (UCL). Founded in Sep 2020, HQ In New York with tech out of Bengaluru.

Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) provider, with in-house software and manufacturing capabilities. The company has seven proprietary drones, across VTOL, fixed-wing, and surveillance. It caters to both enterprise (including Tata Projects, Reliance, Mahindra Susten, L&T) and government clients. ₹3.1CR revenue in FY23, ₹5.6CR in FY24, ₹4.2CR in FY25 YTD. ₹2CR bridge round, from undisclosed angels advised by Bestvantage Investments. Founder Jatin is a former software engineer (TCS, Persistent Systems) who has built this for over 12 years starting in Apr 2013.