Technology Development Board commits ₹151 crore debt funding under RDI Fund to ideaForge for developing YETI heavy-lift autonomous VTOL logistics aircraft

Key facts

• The Technology Development Board (TDB) under the Department of Science & Technology signed an agreement with Mumbai-based ideaForge Technology Limited on 14 October 2026 for ₹151 crore financial support under the Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund, provided through debt financing.
• The ₹151 crore support is for developing YETI, a heavy-lift, long-range autonomous aerial logistics vehicle, under a project with a total cost of ₹302 crore.
• YETI is an autonomous vertical take-off and landing, fixed-wing hybrid unmanned aerial vehicle (VTOL-FW UAV) designed to carry payloads of up to 200 kg over a targeted range of up to 200 km at altitudes of up to 6,500 metres above mean sea level.
• The programme aims to advance YETI from Technology Readiness Level (TRL)-4 to TRL-9 through further engineering, integration, testing and validation, subject to technical, safety and regulatory requirements.
• YETI is designed to take off and land vertically from small, unprepared areas of approximately 15 metres × 15 metres, with a weather-resistant design for high-altitude regions, deserts and marine conditions.
• The platform incorporates distributed and redundant propulsion and power architecture for fault tolerance, along with proposed capabilities including GNSS-denied navigation, a communication link of up to 200 km, swarm operations and containerised transportation for rapid deployment.
• The project falls under the Deep Technology sector, with Intelligent Systems and Robotics as the sub-sector.
• TDB Secretary Rajesh Kumar Pathak said the agreement reflects the government's commitment to strengthening India's capabilities in autonomous systems, robotics and next-generation aerospace technologies.