For decades, India’s startup story was dominated by consumer apps, marketplaces, and digital services built at scale. But beneath the surface, a deeper transformation has been underway — one that is far more strategic, capital-intensive, and globally consequential.
As the country celebrates its 77th Republic Day, a new generation of Indian startups is stepping into domains once considered the exclusive territory of governments and global giants. From space launch systems and defence-grade drones to semiconductor design, sovereign AI, and quantum-safe cybersecurity, these companies are tackling problems that sit at the core of national security, infrastructure, and future technology leadership.
This shift marks a defining moment for India’s innovation ecosystem. The country is no longer just adapting global technology for local needs — it is building foundational technology with global relevance, often from scratch, and often with long development cycles that demand patience, capital, and deep technical expertise.
These startups are not chasing quick scale. Instead, they are engineering systems that could influence how nations communicate, defend borders, launch satellites, secure data, and deploy AI in complex, real-world environments.
On this Republic Day, TICE spotlights five Indian startups that reflect this transformation — companies that are shaping India’s strategic future while contributing meaningfully to the global technology landscape.
Top Startups on Republic Day 2026
Skyroot Aerospace: Opening space access from India to the world
When Skyroot Aerospace was founded in 2018 by former ISRO engineers Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, the idea of private rocket launch services from India was still in its infancy. Today, the Hyderabad-based company stands among the country’s most prominent private space players.
Skyroot focuses on small-satellite launch vehicles, a segment that has seen rising global demand as earth observation, communication, and research satellites multiply. Its flagship Vikram series rockets are built using carbon-composite structures and developed entirely within private facilities, including its MAX-Q headquarters and Infinity campus.
The company’s first operational vehicle, Vikram-I, is designed to offer on-demand launches, capable of carrying up to 350 kg to low Earth orbit (LEO) or 260 kg to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). The rocket combines solid propulsion systems with advanced 3D-printed liquid engines, reflecting Skyroot’s emphasis on modern manufacturing techniques.
While Skyroot operates from India, its ambitions are firmly global. Strategic partnerships with organisations such as Sweden’s SSC, Germany’s Exolaunch, Japan’s ispace, Australia’s HEX20, and US-based Axiom Space have expanded its capabilities across ground tracking, payload integration, lunar missions, and low-Earth-orbit research.
With funding of over $95 million and a steadily growing team, Skyroot is helping position India as a competitive launch destination in the rapidly expanding global small-satellite economy.
Mindgrove Technologies: Designing the silicon India needs
As geopolitical tensions reshape global supply chains, semiconductor independence has become a strategic priority worldwide. Mindgrove Technologies is attempting to address this challenge from India’s side — not by manufacturing chips, but by designing them locally.
Founded in 2022 by semiconductor veteran Karthik Gurumurthy, who previously worked at Texas Instruments and MosChip, Mindgrove is a fabless chip design startup headquartered in Hyderabad. The company focuses on high-performance system-on-chips (SoCs) for use across consumer electronics, automotive systems, industrial IoT, and defence applications.
Mindgrove’s chips are built for edge computing use cases, including CCTV systems, dashcams, smart devices, and vision-based applications where security and efficiency are critical. By developing indigenous chip designs, the startup aims to reduce dependence on imported intellectual property while improving cost structures and deployment timelines for manufacturers.
Backed by $8 million in Series A funding, Mindgrove is scaling its R&D operations with the broader goal of making India a meaningful contributor to the global semiconductor value chain — an area where domestic capability has long been limited.
ideaForge: Drones engineered for real-world missions
Long before drones became mainstream, ideaForge was already working on unmanned aerial systems tailored for complex operational environments. Founded in 2007 by IIT Bombay alumni Ankit Mehta, Rahul Singh, and Ashish Bhat, with Vipul Joshi joining shortly after, the company has grown into one of India’s most established drone manufacturers.
Headquartered in Navi Mumbai, with R&D and manufacturing facilities in Bengaluru, ideaForge designs and builds autonomous UAV platforms entirely in-house. Its drones serve a wide range of applications — from defence and surveillance to mapping, inspection, and industrial operations.
Platforms such as SWITCH, a hybrid VTOL drone, and advanced tactical systems like ZOLT are already deployed across multiple geographies. Collectively, ideaForge drones have flown hundreds of thousands of missions, reflecting both operational maturity and customer trust.
In 2024, the company was ranked third globally among dual-use drone manufacturers by Drone Industry Insights. It has also secured major defence contracts, including over Rs 100 crore in recent orders from the Indian Army for next-generation tactical drones.
Beyond India, ideaForge is expanding its international footprint through partnerships and joint ventures, including First Forge, a US-based collaboration aimed at local UAV manufacturing for defence and security markets.
Sarvam AI: Building sovereign AI for a multilingual nation
Artificial intelligence has largely been shaped by English-centric data and models. Sarvam AI is trying to change that — starting from India.
Founded in 2023 by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, both closely associated with India’s digital public infrastructure through UIDAI and AI4Bharat, Sarvam is focused on building full-stack generative AI systems tailored for Indian languages and contexts.
The Bengaluru-based startup is developing foundational models such as Sarvam 2B, positioned as India’s first open-source small language model for Indic languages, and Shuka 1.0, an audio-first large language model supporting more than ten Indian languages.
In April 2025, Sarvam was selected under the Government of India’s IndiaAI Mission to contribute to the country’s first indigenous foundational large language model. The initiative provides access to a 4,000-GPU compute cluster, placing Sarvam at the heart of India’s sovereign AI ambitions.
While its work is deeply rooted in domestic needs, Sarvam’s models also address a global gap — the lack of robust AI systems for non-English and low-resource languages. The startup has partnered with Microsoft to build Indic voice models on Azure and is part of the global AI Alliance led by Meta and IBM.
With $41 million raised in seed and Series A funding, Sarvam is prioritising deep research and infrastructure over rapid commercial rollout, betting on long-term impact.
QNu Labs: Preparing cybersecurity for the quantum era
Quantum computing promises immense breakthroughs — but it also threatens to break the cryptographic systems that secure today’s digital world. QNu Labs is working on solutions for that future.
Founded in 2016 by Sunil Gupta, Srinivasa Rao Aluri, Mark Mathias, and Anil Prabhakar, the Bengaluru-based startup focuses on quantum-safe cybersecurity technologies. Its portfolio spans quantum key distribution (QKD), quantum random number generation (QRNG), and post-quantum cryptography (PQC).
QNu’s technologies are designed for use cases where security failures are not an option — including national defence, critical infrastructure, and enterprise communications. The company’s work aligns closely with India’s National Quantum Mission, while also addressing rising global demand for quantum-resilient systems.
With growing interest from markets in the US and Europe, QNu raised $6.5 million in a Pre-Series A1 round in December 2023 to fund R&D, international expansion, and future satellite-based QKD initiatives.
In 2025, the startup also launched QNu Academy, aimed at building awareness and talent in quantum cybersecurity — an area facing a global skills shortage.
A Republic Day reflection
Together, these startups illustrate a powerful shift in India’s innovation narrative. They are not chasing trends — they are building infrastructure, systems, and platforms that could define how technology evolves in the coming decades.
As India celebrates another Republic Day, these companies offer a glimpse of what lies ahead: an India that not only participates in global technology markets, but helps shape them.