(l-r) Srinath Ravichandran, CEO and Co-Founder of Agnikul Cosmos; Tamil Nadu Industries Minister TRB Rajaa and Dinesh Arjun, CEO and Co-Founder of Raptee Energy, at a press meet on Saturday.
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Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) has invested ₹25 crore each in space tech start-up Agnikul Cosmos and electric mobility start-up Raptee Energy for a minority equity stake. Its board on Saturday approved the two investments in the two Chennai-based start-ups under the TIDCO Startup Investment Policy 2025.
The investment is under the TIDCO Startup Investment Policy 2025. These investments mark the first deployments under the policy, said Industries Minister TRB Rajaa.
The minister handed over the investment approval letters to Dinesh Arjun, CEO and Co-Founder of Raptee Energy, and Srinath Ravichandran, CEO and Co-Founder of Agnikul Cosmos.
The minister told newspersons that since 2024 the ministry has been working on reimagining TIDCO’s role in the Department of Industries.
Making Tamil Nadu a Product Nation
To lay the foundation for that target, TIDCO was rebranded as a “Venture Catalyst – the first step towards reforming the organisation into a robust investment arm of the government that helps secure the state’s future in sunrise sectors.
“With the two investments, we have opened a brand new chapter in TIDCO’s journey with the ambition to recreate the success of our early investments, like the one in TITAN, across many more promising startups,” he said.
TIDCO has been authorised to invest up to ₹25 crore in eligible startups across sunrise sectors such as electric vehicles, renewable energy, aerospace and defence, semiconductors, medical electronics, advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain and quantum computing, agro and food processing, technical textiles and speciality chemicals. The policy enables investments across the startup lifecycle, from early-stage innovation to scale and expansion, ensuring that high-growth Tamil Nadu companies have access to patient capital within the State, he said.
Srinath Ravichandran, CEO and Co-Founder of Agnikul, said to have an investment from TIDCO into deep tech startups such as ourselves shows that the entire Tamil Nadu Government is focused and serious about developing Tamil Nadu as a technology hub from the grassroots.
Dinesh Arjun, CEO and Co-Founder of Raptee Energy said, “Having TIDCO as a direct investor is a historic first for any State in the country, and it provides Raptee with the institutional credibility to compete on a global stage.
Investment proposals under the new policy will be evaluated through a dedicated TIDCO Investment Committee comprising the Managing Director of TIDCO, the Finance Director, an Independent Director and two external subject matter experts, says a release..
Published on March 14, 2026