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TDB starts RDI fund payments with deeptech bets in space drones and biotech at startup friendly ticket sizes
Startups
Published on 15 May 2026
Some projects get as little as Rs 3 crore
The Technology Development Board (TDB) has begun disbursing the first tranche of India’s Rs 1 lakh crore Research and Development Initiative (RDI) fund, aimed at accelerating deeptech innovation with minimal government interference. TDB expects to release Rs 500–600 crore this fiscal year through investments sized from Rs 3 crore to Rs 100–150 crore per project. It has selected 22 projects so far across drones, spacetech, advanced batteries and biotech, including Rs 50 crore for indigenous cell therapies and Rs 105 crore for a modular satellite platform.
- TDB has started disbursing the first tranche of the Rs 1 lakh crore RDI fund
- Planned release for FY26 is Rs 500–600 crore from TDB’s corpus
- Project ticket sizes range from Rs 3 crore up to Rs 100–150 crore
- TDB has selected 22 projects so far: 14 startups, 5 MSMEs, 3 listed companies
- Early deals include Rs 50 crore for indigenous cell therapies and Rs 105 crore for a 500 kg modular satellite platform
- TDB received 124 proposals and evaluated 51 across four batches before recommendations
Read the full story at The Economic Times
This summarization was done by Beige for a story published on 
The Economic Times