MapmyIndia Makes Strategic Investment In Drone Solutions Startup Indrones

Listed geotech startup MapmyIndia has made a strategic investment in Indrones Solutions Private Limited (Indrones), a leading end-to-end drone solutions startup.

The new funding will allow Indrones to scale up operations, expand its flying experience, and build next-generation autonomous drones, the companies said in a statement.

Additionally, with this strategic investment, MapmyIndia and Indrones will jointly offer drones and drone-based solutions across all use cases including surveying, mapping, inspections and real-time monitoring, the statement added.

The companies will target all verticals such as infrastructure, utilities, land records, agriculture, 3D and high-definition maps, tourism, metaverse, urban planning, disaster, law and order, defence, among others.

Indrones specialises in providing complete packaged end-to-end solutions using drones, ranging from drone data acquisition to data processing and delivering detailed insights for actionable intelligence.

“Drones today are solving some of the most complex problems across industries like mining, construction, oil & gas, infrastructure, agriculture, etc., and Indrones is here to be a part of the digital transformation journey of its customers while leveraging indigenous software maps, geospatial software and IoT technologies developed by MapmyIndia,” Pravin Prajapati, founder and CEO of Indrones, said.

On the other hand, MapmyIndia said the investment will improve its products and offering further and it would be able to offer customers drones and drone-based solutions. Its consumer-facing app Mappls will offer more high-definition and 3D maps, based on drone-collected data, providing immersive and metaverse experiences to users of the app.

“Drones are a sunrise industry, with incredible potential and market opportunity. Our strategic investment in Indrones is in-line with the vision of our Prime Minister’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and making India a drone hub by 2030,” Rakesh Verma, CMD of MapmyIndia, said.

The development comes at a time when the drone industry in the country is seeing a lot of interest from investors. Drone startup Garuda Aerospace has also secured $17 Mn in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm SphitiCap.

Over the past couple of years, the government has also introduced a slew of schemes to boost drone manufacturing in the country. It has also launched a PLI scheme for the same.

The liberalisation of Drone Rules, 2021 also gave a boost to the drone startups. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Indian drone industry is expected to achieve a turnover between INR 12,000 Cr and 15,000 Cr by 2026. The government is aiming to make India a global drone hub by 2030.