India’s iDEX startup wins Robotics Challenge at Dubai Airshow

Sagar Defense, an Innovations for Defense Excellence (iDEX) winner from India, has secured the “Accelerating the Autonomous Robotics Revolution” challenge under the VISTA Track at Dubai Airshow 2025.

The startup received a 5,000 US dollar prize for its autonomous systems concept. iDEX congratulated Sagar Defence team, noting that the achievement highlights India’s growing footprint in defense innovation. Sanyukta Singh, representative of Sagar Defence said its pitch centered on “Genesis”, described as a “boat-in-a-box” concept built around an AI-powered technologies.

This year, 15 iDEX-backed startups are participating in the Dubai Airshow, presenting a broad range of technologies across robotics, space systems, electronic warfare, battlefield awareness and autonomous platforms.