Aerospace startup building next-gen hydrogen powered propulsion systems for defence, civil aviation and shipping. Incubated at IIT Delhi, the company has test-fired India’s first hydrogen-based aero engine, with plans to commercialise its first small-category engine in the next 12 months. $1.6M seed round. Founder Prithwish has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from North Carolina State University - he was a Research Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory (run by the US Dept. of Energy), with brief stints at Agnikul (Lead, Computational Studies) and Euler Motors (AVP - Thermal and Battery R&D). Founded in Nov 2023.

SpaceTech meets pharma manufacturing: the company plans to process pharmaceutical compounds in space and literally bring them back to earth with its reusable satellites. Microgravity (near to zero gravity) makes it possible to produce high-quality protein and drug crystals that can't be produced on earth. Pre-seed round of an undisclosed amount. Founders: Antariksh (CEO) recently graduated from the Technical University of Munich with an M.S. in Applied Physics; Jivitesh Debata (CTO) graduated and worked at the Rochester Institute of Technology; Dr. Monica Ekal (Chief of Space Systems) is a research scientist at German Aerospace Center with a Ph.D. in Space Robotics from Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal.

Chip design company that aims to integrate Gen AI into its design and development workflows. The company believes its AI copilot can cut design cycles from weeks to days, as well as reduce manual iteration in analog integrated circuit design workflows. $4.15M seed round. Founder: Gireesh (CEO), ex-Texas Instruments, founded Steradian Semiconductors (imaging radars); Ashish (CBO) and Rakesh (CPO), also ex-Texas Instruments, were both founding directors at Steradian; the fourth founder, Krishna Sankar (CTO) spent 9 years at LifeSignals Group (patient monitoring devices). He is not linked here. Founded in Mar 2025.

SpaceTech company that is developing a reusable semi-cryogenic launch vehicle (for launching small satellites), as well as researching missile-grade guidance systems. It aims at a first working, reusable prototype in the next two to three years. ₹6.84CR (~$800K) seed round. Founder Suyash started Astrophel in Feb 2021 while at the Pune Institute of Computer Technology. Comps: Skyroot Aerospace (Temasek, GIC), Agnikul Cosmos (Mayfield, pi, Speciale, Celesta, Artha), Abyom SpaceTech and Defence (also developing reusable rockets, seed funded by SCOPE).

Indigenously developed counter drone system that has undergone trials with multiple regiments of the Indian Army. Small, cheap drones are determining the outcome of conflicts across the world, as we've witnessed in the last two years - a reported 70% of deaths in Russia and Ukraine have been from drones. The company has developed its first product - Surge AR01 - a smart drone jamming gun which has a 1.6km jamming range. Current Indian comps are claimed to be ineffective against custom built drones and have little IP control given foreign collaborations. ₹13CR ($1.5M) seed round. Other investors in the round: AC Ventures, Dexter Ventures. Founder Amardeep (IIT Bombay - aerospace engineering) was CMO at ideaForge and co-founder at NexGear (adventure cameras like GoPro) and Vizard (contextualised creatives for brands). Founded in Apr 2024. Comps: Zen Technologies (listed), Big Bang Boom, Paras Defence.

Generative simulation engine for robotics, allowing robotics companies to train and test their systems faster and at a lower cost. Its text to generation "Multimodal World Model (MMWM)" reduces six month testing cycles to weeks at a fraction of the cost. Funding will be used towards product dev, entering the US and running pilots across warehouse automation, industrial robotics and autonomous systems. $1M pre-seed round, which also includes Indian Angel Network (IAN). Both co-founders were part of the Antler India Residency's first cohort; CEO Ayush was a robotics software engineer at three firms; CTO Arjun is a software engineer who was also a Founder in Residence at Entrepreneur First. Founded in July 2022.

A new and indigenously developed solution for long term energy storage, enabling solar energy stored in the summer to be used in winter, while providing a source of reliable power backup for over 100 hours. Built upon a patented mechanically rechargeable Zinc-Air battery system which will deliver a cost of energy ("LCoE") which is competitive against lithium-ion. $1M seed round. Founded by researchers who built out the technology while conducting five years of foundational research at IIT Madras. The company itself was founded in Apr 2024.

$1.5M seed round. Founders: CEBiotech company developing a vaccine targeting obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver. Funding is towards the the preclinical development of UT009, its immunotherapeutic candidate, and eventually Phase I human trials. "UT009 represents a paradigm shift by differentiating it from current obesity drugs by addressing the root causes of weight gain". $1.5M seed round. Founders: CEO Gopi (VIT) was the CEO of Kyntox Biotech (diagnostics kits for snakebites); co-founder Uday was Chief Scientific Officer at Dr Reddy's and has been the CEO of two nutraceuticals companies since. Founded in Mar 2024.O Gopi (VIT) was the CEO of Kyntox Biotech (diagnostics kits for snakebites); co-founder Uday was Chief Scientific Officer at Dr Reddy's and has been the CEO of two nutraceuticals companies since. Founded in Mar 2024.

Microbiome-based life sciences company, with a customer facing solution to improve gut health. ₹4CR pre-seed round. Founders: CEO Bipin was co-founder at Gaia Smart Cities (IOT devices for trains and airports); the Chief of Science and Technology has been a Senior Research Scientist at The Systems Biology Institute in Japan for 17 years; and the CEO of SBX Technologies (Japan) for a decade; Hiroaki Kitano, the Chief of Research and Collaboration, is the Head of the The Systems Biology Institute.

DeepTech-driven contract manufacturing startup, offering on-demand manufacturing using advanced robotics for the pharma and wellness industry. Manufacturing is scalable, FDA compliant and offers customers a full suite from product development to commercial production. Has scaled production for 120 products, for clients in India, the US and MENA. $2.2 million seed round. The two co-founders were at IISc together. Prior to this, they ran Fermedicius Labs Retail Robotics together - consumer facing robotic solutions for food service & retail.