Technology Development Board

Supports Technology Development Board as India's commercialization finance route with soft loans and selective equity for market-ready ventures.

Technology Development Board (TDB) is India's statutory technology-commercialisation lender under the Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology. Established in 1996, it exists to finance companies and public sector units that need help moving indigenous technology into the market or adapting imported technology for wider domestic use. Its operating currency is INR, and the agency is best understood as a development financier rather than a conventional grantmaker.

TDB's main instrument is a soft loan at 5% simple interest, and the structure also allows equity participation in some cases. Its sector coverage includes biotechnology, energy, hardware, manufacturing, and medtech, with the TDB Technology Commercialisation Soft Loan as the named programme in the available data. Applicants are typically Indian registered companies or PSUs that hold or license relevant intellectual property and can show a credible commercialisation path.

The agency's role is to bridge the gap between laboratory-stage innovation and market-ready products. That makes it most relevant for teams that need patient balance-sheet support, have defensible technology, and can show how the project will move into domestic deployment rather than remain at proof-of-concept stage.