Coromandel Invests INR 150 Cr In Drone Startup Dhaksha To Increase Stake To 58%

Listed agri-solutions provider Coromandel International Limited has signed an agreement to increase its stake in Chennai-based drone startup Dhaksha Unmanned Systems with an investment of INR 150 Cr (about $18 Mn).

Coromandel will make the investment through its wholly owned subsidiary, Coromandel Technology Limited, to take its stake to 58.01% from 51.02% earlier. 

The deal will be completed this month, the company said in an exchange filing.

Dhaksha will utilise the fresh capital to strengthen its R&D efforts, cater to servicing large orders and meeting its working capital needs.

Founded by Ramanathan Narayanan in 2019, Dhaksha manufactures drones for applications in agriculture, defence, and enterprise sectors. It also conducts remote pilot training and has coached 950 pilots so far. 

The startup claims to have bagged several orders from defence and agri input companies in the past year. Currently, it has an order book of INR 265 Cr. Recently, the startup also expanded its production capacity with the establishment of a new manufacturing facility established on the outskirts of Chennai. 

As per Coromandel’s filing, Dhaksha’s turnover stood at INR 46.40 Cr in FY24 and INR 8.99 Cr in FY23.

Commenting on the investment, Coromandel’s executive chairman Arun Alagappan said, “This investment in Dhaksha aligns with Coromandel’s vision of diversifying in technology spaces and promoting technology adoption across various spheres. We remain committed to bringing in the latest innovations in drones and enable Dhaksha to become a drone manufacturing major in the country.” 

The company first invested in Dhaksha in 2022. Later, it increased its stake in the startup to 51.02% by acquiring an additional 32.68% stake in the startup last year by investing INR 204 Cr.

With the fresh investment, the agri company is looking to solidify its presence in the unmanned aircraft system space. 

Earlier this month, Coromandel also invested INR 24 Cr in deeptech startup Ecozen to increase its stake to 5.54% from 3.13% .

The latest investment in Dhaksha comes at a time when a number of drone startups have emerged in the country in the last few years on the back of the Centre’s initiatives to make India a drone hub.

Earlier this month, agritech startup BharatRohan also raised $2.3 Mn to develop proprietary edge computing drones specifically for precision farming, crop monitoring and pesticide applications.

As per an Inc42 report, the Indian drone market is expected to reach $13 Bn in size by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 21% between 2022 and 2030.