When Prime Minister Narendra Modi rode the Chennai Metro with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, the trip doubled as a pitch session. More than 15 startup founders reportedly joined, and YourStory profiled eight of them. The list shows where Tamil Nadu's deep-tech work is heading, and how much of it now happens outside Chennai.
The eight startups
Dream Aerospace Technologies (Chennai, spacetech) builds propulsion systems for satellites, spacecraft and re-entry vehicles. Founded in 2022, it has about 25 people with an average age of around 25, and its founder said orders are lined up for the next two to three years.
Blunav Technologies (Chennai, aviation tech) makes software to run airport operations, covering aircraft movements, passenger services and baggage, designed for small and medium airports. The PM reportedly wanted it trialled at an UDAN airport.
Grahaa Space (Karur, spacetech) is building a nanosatellite constellation for near-real-time Earth video. Its first launch attempt, from Brazil in December 2025, failed when the rocket exploded. In July 2026 it put its SOLARAS satellite into low Earth orbit on Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1.
FarmwiseAI (Chennai, agritech) uses AI and geospatial analytics for agriculture and land records. It reports completing a statewide Field Measurement Book mapping programme covering more than 4.5 crore land parcels across 17,700 villages.
Thazhal Geospatial Analytics (Tirunelveli, climate tech) combines satellite imagery, drone data and IoT sensors to monitor assets and environmental risk for lenders, insurers, businesses and government.
Diagno Intelligent Systems (Chennai, health tech) has built iOsteoporos Screen, which estimates hip bone mineral density from ordinary chest X-rays to flag people at risk of osteoporosis.
MEDxAI Innovations (Kancheepuram, health and life sciences), incubated at VIT, showed CerviLens for AI-assisted cervical cancer pre-screening and Quantum PharmX for AI-led drug discovery.
Munify Datatech (Chennai, fintech and govtech) organises municipal budgets, audited accounts and property tax data into credit scores for cities, and says its database covers more than 200 municipal corporations.
What stands out
AI is built in, not pitched. Five of the eight use AI or geospatial analytics as a core part of the product, but none of them leads with "AI startup". They lead with a problem: land records, bone health, municipal credit.
Tier-2 cities are in the room. Karur, Tirunelveli and Kancheepuram sit next to Chennai on this list. Tamil Nadu's startup policy has been aiming for exactly this, and here it showed up in front of the Prime Minister.
Government is often the first customer. FarmwiseAI's work with the state agriculture department, Thazhal's infrastructure monitoring and Munify's municipal data all depend on public bodies as buyers or data partners. That is a strength, and also a risk if procurement cycles stay slow.
Space keeps coming up. Two of the eight are spacetech, and Grahaa's story, a failed launch followed by a successful one on an Indian private rocket, shows how quickly that ecosystem has matured.
A metro ride is not a funding round. Still, the list is a fair snapshot of where Tamil Nadu's next set of companies is being built.
Source: YourStory: Meet 8 Tamil Nadu startups that showcased their innovations to PM Modi
