India backs eVTOL startup Ubifly with $30M convertible debt
What's the deal? India's Technology Development Board (TDB)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, under the Department of Science & TechnologyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, approved US$38.7M in support for Chennai-based Ubifly Technologies to advance its indigenous ePlane air mobility platform. The funding comes as optionally convertible debentures under the country's Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund.
What's the endgame? Ubifly is building the e200X, a three-seater, zero-emission aircraft for one pilot and two passengers, with a targeted range of 110km and a speed of 160kmph. The company designed the full airframe in-house, along with vertical rotors, forward propellers, flight-control algorithms, and battery-pack modules.
The aircraft's landing gear is built for both conventional and vertical landing, and its compact design is intended to operate from small spaces and run multiple trips on a single charge.
Where does the money go? The support funds roughly half of the US$77.4M total project cost. It will take the technology from Technology Readiness Level 6 to TRL-9 — covering testing, validation, and scale-up toward a commercially deployable system.
Why now? India is pushing to build a private-sector-led deep-tech ecosystem, and the RDI Fund is one of its main vehicles. "The RDI Fund represents a significant shift towards enabling private-sector participation in the development of high-impact technologies," said Rajesh Kumar Pathak, secretary of the TDB.
A company representative said the support "will provide important impetus to the continued development and validation of our ePlane technology," noting that reaching TRL-9 "requires sustained investment in engineering, testing and technology maturation."
The signal: Governments are increasingly co-funding deep-tech hardware that private capital finds too slow or risky to back alone. By using convertible instruments rather than grants, India is testing a model that keeps a stake in commercialisation while pushing indigenous advanced air mobility toward real deployment.
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Image credit: Generated with Gemini
