Coratia Technologies raises a ₹18 crore bridge round led by MGF Kavachh to build underwater robots for the Indian Navy

TLDR

• Coratia, an Indian underwater robotics start-up, raised ₹18 crore in a bridge round led by MGF Kavachh.¹²
• The money funds a ₹66 crore Indian Navy contract for underwater robots, plus research and manufacturing.¹²
• Dealroom labels it a Series A extension, while the company and other outlets call it a bridge round.³¹

Coratia Technologies, an Odisha-based underwater robotics company, said on 29 October 2026 that it has raised ₹18 crore in a bridge round led by MGF Kavachh, according to ETEntrepreneur and to Entrackr, which cites a company press release.¹² The round follows a ₹17 crore pre-Series A in 2025 backed by MGF Kavachh, Piper and SIDBI, so MGF Kavachh is an existing investor.¹ The sources do not say whether Piper or SIDBI took part this time, who else invested, or what the valuation is. Dealroom News calls the round a "Series A extension" and gives dollar figures that do not match each other, US$2.44M and "roughly $1.89 million" in the text and $1.89M in the headline, so this article uses the company's rupee figures.³

Coratia builds remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) and robotic systems for defence, industrial inspection and critical infrastructure, according to ETEntrepreneur.¹ It was founded by Debendra Pradhan and Biswajit Swain; Entrackr says it was co-founded in 2021, while Dealroom traces the founders' roots to robotics contests at NIT Rourkela in 2014.²³ Its flagship Jalasimha vehicle is designed to work at depths of up to 300 metres, and the company says it has reached Technology Readiness Level 9, meaning proven in operation; that is a company claim.¹² The platforms combine acoustic sensors, multibeam sonar, Doppler velocity logs and ultra-short baseline navigation with cameras and payloads such as manipulators and thickness gauges for inspecting steel.¹ The Machine Maker lists visual inspection, sonar surveys, bathymetry, non-destructive testing and robotic cleaning among its services.⁴ CEO Pradhan says the design targets Indian waters, which have "high turbidity, silt, low visibility and changing currents".¹

The anchor customer is the Indian Navy. A ₹66 crore contract signed in September 2025 covers the supply and maintenance of indigenous underwater robotic systems for ship-hull cleaning, minor salvage and inspection of submerged infrastructure, according to ETEntrepreneur, and Entrackr says it was awarded under the government's iDEX innovation programme.¹² Dealroom describes it as the Navy's first large-scale induction of India-built underwater ROVs; the other sources do not make that claim.³ The new money goes to executing that programme, research and development, and manufacturing and deployment capacity.¹² The company's longer-term aim is to raise the share of indigenous components and cut its reliance on externally integrated solutions.¹ Its listed customers and partners also include Indian Oil, Indian Railways, Tata Steel, Hindalco, SAIL, Neelachal Ispat Nigam, Jindal Steel and Power, and NIT Rourkela.¹²

On the lead investor, MGF Kavachh founder and managing partner Raj Sethia told ETEntrepreneur the firm backed Coratia before the Navy order and that the follow-on reflects about a year and a half of working with the company, not the contract alone.¹ Director of investments Vandana Swarup says the follow-on will help Coratia advance its development plans and expand deployments.⁴ The sources do not describe MGF Kavachh's other investments in defence or maritime technology, so its wider portfolio in the field is not covered here. Dealroom reads the round as investors leaning into India's push for home-built defence technology.³ That is its interpretation, not a figure from the company.

Why it matters: a single Navy order has produced a follow-on from the same lead investor, which makes Coratia a test of whether Indian defence-innovation contracts can carry a start-up to scale, though the sources give no valuation, revenue or delivery data on the ₹66 crore programme.¹²³