Big Bang Boom Pockets $30 Mn To Boost Its Anti-Drone Tech Playbook

Big Bang Boom Solutions (BBBS), a deeptech startup working in the defence space, has secured $30 Mn (INR 250 Cr) in an undisclosed funding round from a clutch of investors, including Mumbai Angels Network, Vyom Family Office, SBI Startup Branch Chennai and Asquare Investing, among others.

The Chennai-based company plans to deploy the fresh proceeds to expand its operations and build new technologies.

The funding comes nearly over six months after BBBS bagged an order worth over INR 200 Cr from the Indian Air Force and the Indian Army for its anti-drone technology.

Founded in 2018 by Praveen Dwarakanath and R. Shivaraman, Big Bang Boom aims to co-create intellectual property that can be used by the Indian armed forces to counter asymmetric emerging threats. In addition to the anti-drone system, the startup has also won five iDEX challenges and completed three of them in diverse fields of drones, advanced chemical engineering, computer vision and cyber security. 

“Building a defence business requires patient capital. But expecting investors to have a 25 year horizon is a pipe dream. We therefore looked at the problem through a different lens. We decided to rotate the capital table 8 times in 25 years giving investors timely exits and an option to stay on,” said Dwarakanath.

“When we set out to build a product, we benchmark ourselves globally, allowing us to compete both in India and across the world and ensure longer product life cycles. While R&D is in our DNA, and we will do what it takes to transform the landscape of Indian defence, we are clear that the timeline to monetization must go hand in hand with adequate creation of core intellectual property,” said Shivaraman.

It is pertinent to note that in an attempt to improve border security, the Indian army reportedly said earlier this year that it was planning to set up a fully indigenous anti-drone system across the country’s western borders for drones allegedly smuggling arms and narcotics in India from another nation.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had reportedly also asked the likes of BEL, Larsen and Toubro, and Adani Group to develop the anti-drone technology.

EndureAir Systems, ideaForge, and IoTechWorld are a few other drone startups catering to various needs of the defence sector.

IdeaForge recently entered the US market and expanded to Oman, Nigeria, and Bhutan. However, the company faced challenges in Q1 FY25, with net profit dropping 90% to $0.24 Mn (INR 20 Mn) and revenue falling 11.2% year-on-year to $10.3 Mn (INR 862 Mn).