Manastu Space Technologies has signed an agreement with the Technology Development Board for Rs 116 crore in support under India's Research, Development and Innovation Fund. The Ministry of Science and Technology announced the agreement on 26 October, backing a development programme at the Navi Mumbai company rather than announcing a completed commercial rollout.
The support will take the form of optionally convertible debt, according to the ministry's announcement. The total project cost is Rs 277.63 crore. Those are different figures: the government commitment is part of the project's financing, not the value of the whole programme or a disclosed valuation of the company.
The announcement does not state when the money will be disbursed. It also does not publish the debt's interest rate, repayment schedule or conversion terms. An agreement to provide support should therefore not be read as confirmation that the full amount has already reached Manastu's accounts, or as an equity funding round with a stated ownership stake.
Development funding, not a completed deployment
The funded work concerns propulsion technology for satellites and launch vehicles. The ministry says the programme will take the technology from Technology Readiness Level 6 to Level 9 through further engineering, integration, testing and validation. Reaching the final level is the project's objective, not an achievement announced alongside the financing agreement.
The ministry describes a system using hydrogen peroxide-based propellant with additives, supported by an engine and catalyst system. Planned development covers propulsion engines, propellant feed systems and an ultra-high-temperature ceramic catalyst. The intended thrust range runs from 5 millinewtons to 300 newtons, spanning smaller satellite applications and higher-thrust requirements.
These technical details describe the scope of work being financed. They do not establish that every version in that range is ready for customers. The ministry says Manastu's propulsion technology has already been demonstrated in space, but says further development is needed to improve reliability and readiness for wider deployment. It gives no completion date for the funded programme.
Dalimss News previously examined Manastu's propulsion products and flight history. The new development is the RDI financing agreement. The latest ministry release describes the funded programme collectively; it does not provide a revised readiness rating for each individual product covered in the earlier report.
TDB Secretary Rajesh Kumar Pathak said the fund supports technology-intensive programmes needing sustained investment to move towards deployment. The ministry places this project in the deep-technology sector, with space technology as its sub-sector, and identifies stronger domestic propulsion capability and reduced reliance on externally sourced technology as policy objectives.
How the wider RDI financing framework works
The agreement sits within a fund approved by the Union Cabinet on 1 July 2025 and launched on 3 November that year. In a 23 July 2026 parliamentary reply, the ministry described the Rs 1 lakh crore RDI Fund as supporting strategic technology sectors, explicitly including space. TDB and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council were approved as second-level fund managers.
That reply set out the financing structure: eligible projects must be at Technology Readiness Level 4 or above, and project proponents must mobilise the remaining financing through their own or commercial resources. For loans, RDI support is limited to half the project cost; for equity or equity-linked instruments, it is limited to half the value of each funding round.
Those general rules do not disclose Manastu's individual contract terms. The difference between its announced project cost and TDB support is Rs 161.63 crore, calculated from the two ministry figures. The announcement does not identify the sources financing that balance. Nor does it name customer commitments or establish a commercial launch date.
The RDI agreement is also separate from the startup credit-guarantee programme covered by Dalimss News. Here, the disclosed instrument is optionally convertible debt for a named technology-development project. The next evidence to watch is the financing's implementation and the programme's validation results, rather than treating the support announcement itself as proof of commercial readiness.
