Indian Startup Wins $8M Navy Deal for Underwater Robots

Two engineering graduates who met building underwater robots in college are now supplying them to the Indian Navy for $8 million.

Debendra Pradhan and Biswajit Swain founded Coratia Technologies in 2021 in Rourkela, Odisha, after winning a government challenge to build a robot that could navigate underwater and hit targets autonomously. They saw how far behind India was in underwater robotics and decided to fix it.

The company builds two types of machines. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are controlled from the surface through a cable, while autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) navigate on their own using cameras, sonar and AI-based inspection systems that work even in murky water where human divers cannot see.

These robots inspect bridges, dams, ship hulls, pipelines and undersea cables without risking human lives. That last application matters more than most people realize: India depends on undersea cables for internet traffic but has limited ability to inspect and repair them when they fail.

In September 2025, the Indian Navy signed a $8 million contract with Coratia for indigenous underwater ROVs under the Ministry of Defence's innovation program. The 32-person team, still working out of their NIT Rourkela incubation center, beat foreign competitors who have dominated this market for decades.

The company has raised $2.7 million from angel investors and government grants. Its customer list already includes Indian Railways, Tata Steel and the National Institute of Oceanography, but the Navy contract represents something bigger: proof that India can build its own advanced defense technology instead of importing it.

The Ripple Effect

Deep-sea robotics is a tiny field in India with only a handful of players. Foreign specialists have largely ignored smaller domestic contracts, leaving room for a homegrown solution to emerge.

Coratia's success opens doors for India's entire blue economy, the economic activity tied to oceans and waterways. Every underwater inspection that used to require costly foreign equipment or dangerous human divers can now happen faster, safer and cheaper with Indian-made robots.

The Navy deal also sends a signal to other defense buyers: indigenous deep-tech startups can deliver at scale. For a country working to reduce defense imports, that matters beyond this one contract.

India now has a real player in underwater robotics, built from a student project into a company trusted by the Navy in just four years.