India’s Defence startups look beyond drones, towards maritime opportunities

India’s Defence startups look beyond drones, towards maritime opportunities

India’s defence-tech ecosystem is entering a new phase underwater, with the Indian Navy increasingly turning to startups for technologies spanning autonomous vessels, underwater surveillance and mine-countermeasure systems as maritime security gains strategic importance.

After years of government-backed programmes focused on prototypes and trials, startups are now beginning to see actual procurement orders, signaling a shift in the Navy’s engagement with the private sector. The move is also opening opportunities in adjacent areas such as marine navigation, sensing and surveillance for State governments and civilian maritime communities.

As underwater domain awareness continues to remain largely unmet, programmes such as iDEX and Sprint created a strong environment for prototypes, trials and user validation. The next challenge is converting these deployments into larger operational orders.

Johns T Mathai, Founder & CEO, EyeROV, said, “We are seeing the Indian Navy move from being primarily a test-bed for defence startups to becoming a meaningful procurement customer.”

Industry experts noted that larger opportunities are emerging from spaces such as mine-countermeasures, surveillance, anti-submarine warfare, and persistent maritime monitoring.

EyeROV’s Trout, for instance, started as an indigenous development programme under the iDEX DISC 7 Sprint challenge. After development, trials and qualification, the Indian Navy placed a ₹47-crore order for five systems, with deliveries already underway, Mathai said.

Similarly, Priyanka Singhal, Founder and CEO of Ammunic Systems, said startups are expanding beyond traditional land and aerial defence systems into underwater technologies. The company also has developed electronic underwater fuzes, of 900-gram weight, which has the depth-sensing capability and a self-destruct mechanism.

She said, “We have filed for India’s first advanced electronic fusing system for naval underwater. The company is also in the process of developing other products including limpid mines. Naval is very untouched as of now, but it’s going to be the next future after the loiter munitions.“

The opportunity is also extending to the broader marine technology stack, including navigation and sensing systems.

C2C Advanced Systems, which develops vertically integrated defence electronics and mission-critical C4ISR systems, said its MAGI C5ISR platform remains its largest revenue contributor, with deployments across naval, Army and Air Force domains. Its recent developments include expanded deployment with the Indian Navy, continued execution of projects under DRDO and BEL contracts and initial engagement with international naval clients in Southeast Asia.

The company is also looking to expand its maritime footprint as demand for indigenous systems grows.

For Yaanendriya, the opportunity is further down the maritime technology stack — navigation and sensing.

Vamshi Bharadwaj M V, Co-Founder and CEO, Yaanendriya, said the company has already supplied sensors for remotely operated vehicles, including systems used by the Indian Navy, and is now pitching its GINS navigation system to the Navy. The objective, he said, is to indigenise a capability that was earlier imported.

But Yaanendriya sees a potential market beyond defence. Bharadwaj said the system could help fishermen identify maritime boundaries and avoid inadvertently crossing into neighbouring countries, particularly in coastal States such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

The company is approaching State governments, DRDO and marine associations and sees the requirement as a potential strategic order book. Yaanendriya is currently at the prototype-validation stage for GINS, he said.

Bhaskar Majumdar, Founder & Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures noted that technologically, maritime autonomy is quite different from aerial drones.

“Procurement clearance, initial order and repeated orders are what really separates a procurement narrative from a scalable business,” he added.

The emerging naval opportunity is part of a broader transition in India’s defence-startup ecosystem. As of February 2026, 676 startups, MSMEs and individual innovators had been engaged under iDEX, with 58 prototypes receiving procurement clearance worth about ₹3,853 crore and 45 procurement contracts worth about ₹2,326 crore.

For startups, the focus is increasingly shifting from proving that a technology works to building systems that can be manufactured, integrated and deployed at scale.

Mathai said EyeROV’s systems have 69 per cent indigenous content, with the company developing its core IP, system architecture, manufacturing, software, navigation and robotic integration in India, even as some specialised components continue to depend on a developing domestic supply chain.

India’s defence-startup ecosystem has matured across land, drones and aerial systems. The underwater domain remains comparatively less explored. With the Navy articulating specific requirements and startups beginning to secure procurement orders, the opportunity is moving from what can be built to what can be deployed at scale.