AI-Enabled NDT Robotics Startup Octobotics Raises ~₹10 Crore in Series Seed Funding to Transform Asset Integrity Across Oil & Gas, Chemical Industry and Rail

Octobotics Tech Pvt Ltd, an industrial robotics company, has announced the successful closure of its Series Seed funding round of approximately ₹10 crore.

The round was led by Navam Capital, with participation from BYT Capital. The funds will be deployed to accelerate product development, strengthen field validation, and support international expansion.

Founded in 2020 by Ishan Bhatnagar and Gulshan Kumar, Octobotics develops AI-enabled, vertically integrated Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) robotics platforms engineered for harsh environments across industrial and rail applications.

The company currently serves leading organisations including the Indian Navy, IOCL, Saudi S-Chem, BPCL, HPCL, Aarti Industries, and GSFC, and recorded ₹2 crore in annual revenue in the last fiscal year.

“This capital will support R&D for vertical integration and the pursuit of IECEx and ATEX certifications, while expanding our operations in India, Singapore, and the Middle East,” said Ishan Bhatnagar and Gulshan Kumar, Co-Founders of Octobotics. “The distribution-led approach allows us to deploy these systems to assist human operators and reduce the need for manual tasks in hazardous environments.”

Commenting on the investment, Dr. Anjan Ray, Investment Partner at Navam Capital, said,

“Octobotics is addressing specific maintenance challenges within critical infrastructure. Their focus on a vertically integrated technology stack and a scalable distribution model provides a clear path for serving the global inspection market.”

In asset-intensive industries such as Oil & Gas, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Marine, Power, Fertilizers, and Rail, competitiveness is increasingly driven by safety, operability, and asset uptime. However, several high-risk inspection zones—including corroded surfaces, elevated structures, confined spaces, and complex geometries—continue to pose challenges for conventional manual inspection methods.

The company addresses complex inspection challenges by automating hazardous tasks and converting field measurements into actionable asset integrity intelligence. By enabling earlier detection of defects, corrosion, and material loss, Octobotics helps operators reduce operational risk and minimise unplanned downtime. Its robotic and sensor-driven workflows capture high-fidelity inspection data, which is analysed using predictive analytics to deliver a unified, decision-ready view of asset health.

The founders first connected at MERI Kolkata and later built careers in complex international operations. Ishan Bhatnagar previously managed maritime operations and automation at Singapore-based BW Maritime, while Gulshan Kumar served as an Operations & Maintenance Engineer at Belgian dredging major D.E.M.E. Inspired by the “Make in India” mission, they returned to India to build data-driven, field-ready inspection solutions for critical infrastructure.

Octobotics’ product portfolio includes PA RailScan, a PAUT-based system for rail track weld inspection that enables consistent defect detection and repeatable inspection quality at scale; Weld Sensei, an automated inspection platform designed for precision data acquisition in hazardous environments where manual inspection is impractical or unsafe; and Reach Master, a specialised NDT tool developed for inspection tasks in hard-to-reach and high-elevation zones.