Coratia Technologies raises Rs 18 crore to deliver its Indian Navy underwater robot contract

Coratia Technologies, an Odisha-based startup that builds underwater robots, has raised Rs 18 crore in a bridge round led by MGF Kavachh, the company announced on October 29. The money will go toward executing its Rs 66 crore Indian Navy contract under the iDEX defence innovation programme, research on new products, and scaling manufacturing and deployment, according to Entrackr and ET Industry.

ETEntrepreneur reported that the Navy contract was signed in September 2025 and covers supply and maintenance of indigenous underwater robotic systems for ship hull cleaning, minor salvage work and inspection of submerged infrastructure. The company's flagship remotely operated vehicle, Jalasimha, has reached Technology Readiness Level 9 and is designed to work at depths of up to 300 metres. Its platforms combine sonar, Doppler velocity logs and acoustic positioning with cameras and inspection payloads such as robotic manipulators and thickness gauges.

Coratia was founded by Debendra Pradhan (CEO) and Biswajit Swain (CTO), who started working on underwater robotics as students at NIT Rourkela. ET Industry reported that its clients and partners include the Indian Navy, Indian Oil, Indian Railways, Tata Steel, Hindalco, SAIL and Jindal Steel and Power. Beyond defence, the systems can inspect dams, ports, bridges, pipelines and offshore assets, work that still relies heavily on human divers.

This is a follow-on for MGF Kavachh, which also backed the company's Rs 17 crore pre-Series A round in 2025 alongside Piper and SIDBI. Pradhan said Indian waters bring particular problems such as high turbidity, silt and low visibility, and that the company is focused on making its systems smaller and more capable.