Eyes In The Sky: 39 Indian Drone Startups Looking For A Major Pie

Ever since the Government of India liberalised the policy governing the operations of drones, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ecosystem heaved a sigh of relief on the back of a slew of positive announcements related to the segment. 

For example, the Cabinet’s approval of the INR 120 Cr PLI scheme, a ban on the import of drones (aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing), and the drone certification scheme to ensure safety and quality requirements are a few positive steps. 

Besides, the establishment of digital airspace mapping for drones alongside announcements such as Drone Shakti and Kisan drones have been touted by experts as a step in the right direction.

With the Centre taking steps to bolster the drone ecosystem with new schemes such as Drone Didi, the participation of people across the ecosystem is expected to grow further.

As per Inc42’s Indian Drone Tech Startup Landscape & Market Opportunity Report 2023, the Indian drone market is expected to reach $13 Bn in size by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 21% between 2022 and 2030.

In this article, Inc42 has compiled a list of 37 Indian drone startups, detailing their journeys – from what they do to their plans as the deeptech segment booms.

(Note: The list below is not meant to be a ranking of any kind. We have listed the Indian drone startups in alphabetical order.)

Aereo

• Founded In: 2013
• Founders: Vipul Singh, Suhas Banshiwala
• Funding Raised To Date: $21 Mn+
• Investors: GrowX, 500 Startups, StartupXseed, 3one4 capital, Valpro, 360 ONE Asset
• Headquarters: Bengaluru 

Launched in 2013, Aereo (earlier Aarav Unmanned Systems) offers end-to-end drone solutions. AUS is building commercial-grade drones and provides drone-based solutions for enterprise applications in Mining, Infrastructure, Urban Planning, Irrigation, Energy and Agriculture. 

It also offers integrated solutions for drone applications, providing the drone, an operator and a cloud platform for data analysis. It was also amongst the three companies that were shortlisted to map India’s 600,000 villages by the government.

In July 2022, it signed an MoU with Tata Steel to develop and offer integrated drone solutions for open cast mining operations.

Prior to that, it got into a lease financial deal worth INR 3.75 Cr with Grip to build new revenue streams by leveraging lease financing for more than 50 drones.

In July 2024, Aereo bagged $15 Mn in its Series B funding round led by 360 ONE Asset, with participation from StartupXseed Ventures and Navam Capital.

Aero360

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Pragadish Santhosh
• Funding Raised To Date: NA
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Chennai

Founded in 2017, Chennai-based Aero360 builds autonomous hybrid drones to enhance aerial surveying, surveillance and rescue applications. The startup has developed six unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the aforementioned applications.

All its UAVs are equipped with multiple features like infrared sensors, thermal cameras, magnetometers, and fail-safes mechanisms such as return to home on communication breakdown.

It has also built an agricultural spraying drone – Agri – which features a 17 L storage tank for pesticides, fertilisers and other agrochemicals for precision spraying.

While the startup has yet to raise equity funding, Aero360 has partnered with Indian Coast Guard and Indian Army for surveillance purposes.

Airbound

• Founded In: 2022
• Founders: Naman Pushp, Faraaz Baig
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.7 Mn
• Investors: Lightspeed, gradCapital 
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Airbound is building drone technology that can transform the logistics landscape with more efficient drone deliveries. The startup claims to be leveraging a proprietary blended wing body tailsitter design drone called TRT that can lower drone delivery costs by up to two orders of magnitude compared to traditional methods. 

Airbound’s drone has an all-up weight of 2.5 kg and can carry a maximum payload of 1 kg. With a range of 100 Km, it claims to be suitable for a range of applications. The startup plans to initially deploy TRT drones to transport blood samples and other medical essentials from rural health centres to urban testing facilities.

In November 2024, it raised $1.7 Mn in a seed round led by Lightspeed. gradCapital and other angel investors also participated in the round.

Amber Wings

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Prof. Satya Chakravarthy
• Funding Raised To Date: NA
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Chennai

A brainchild of Professor Satya Chakravarthy, Amber Wings is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) startup incubated at IIT Madras. It operates as a sister company to ePlane, which is developing flying taxis and other aerial vehicles for passenger mobility logistics.

Unlike ePlane, Amber Wings specialises in the development of cargo electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) drones, designed with versatile capabilities catering to imaging and logistics requirements.

Unveiled in September 2023, Amber Wings showcased its latest innovation, the hybrid VTOL and fixed-wing drone named Atva. The drone comes with AI capabilities, and the company claims that it offers up to 10X faster flight times, ideal for long-range imaging solutions.

Additionally, the drone features superior battery life and a range of versatile payload options. Atva’s commercialisation is currently underway.

Amber Wings is focussed on addressing the mid and last-mile cargo transport segment, positioning itself as a key player in the Indian UAV industry.

AOTOM TECHNOLOGY

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Krunal Kalbende
• Funding Raised To Date: $100K
• Investors: Krunal Kalbende
• Headquarters: Nagpur

Aotom Technology works in the field of drone technology, geophysical services, AI, data analytics, face recognition and blockchain technology.

The startup offers machine learning services, regression techniques, deep neural networks, pattern recognition, cognitive intelligence, NLP/text mining, visual/audio entity tagging, and text captioning, among others to examine a human face and the surface of the earth. 

Its expertise helps it select an appropriate algorithm based on the data structure, patterns and desired outcomes. Coupled with its experience in digital technologies, platforms and the business domain, the startup offers comprehensive solutions and services for business and technology teams of enterprises to apply AI/ML in various lines of business.

Asteria Aerospace

• Founded In: 2011
• Founders: Neel Mehta, Nihar Vartak
• Funding Raised To Date: INR 23.12 Cr
• Investors: Reliance Industries
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Asteria is a robotics and AI startup that offers drone-as-a-service (DaaS) solutions and builds drones for industries such as defence, agriculture, oil and gas, mining and construction, telecommunications, and energy.   

Its products include DGCA-certified micro-sized drone A200, small-sized multirotor drone A410, and a vertical take-off and landing aircraft drone AT-15. 

In December 2019, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) bought 51.78% equity in Asteria for INR 23.12 Cr. During that time, RIL shared that it would infuse an additional INR 125 Cr in the startup to increase its stake to 87.3% by December 2021. 

In the financial year 2021, its operating revenue stood at INR 8 Cr and net loss was at INR 8.2 Cr. 

AVPL International

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Deep Sisai, Preet Sandhuu 
• Funding Raised To Date: NA
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR

AVPL International (AITMC Ventures) offers drone training programmes and certifications to rural youth, along with providing Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) and manufacturing drones.

The company has a presence across 12 Indian states, encompassing 70 skill and incubation hubs dedicated to the drone and agriculture sectors. The DGCA-certified startup is also affiliated with NSDC, ASCI, TSSC, and several state governments, including those of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Assam. The company also operates a chain of agri-input retail outlets across India.

Last year, it filed DRHP for an IPO on the NSE’s SME platform, NSE Emerge. AVPL’s IPO includes a fresh issue of shares of up to 2.07 Cr equity shares, with a face value of INR 2 each, and no offer for sale (OFS) component.

BharatRohan

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Amandeep Panwar, Rishabh Chaudhary
• Funding Raised To Date: $0.33K
• Investors: Upaya Social Ventures, Acumen Fund Inc 
• Headquarters: Hyderabad 

BharatRohan is a tech-enabled agri-enabler that provides drone-based advisory services to around 6K farmers across 30K acre farms in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The startup provides a four-part service that is intended to optimise input usage, minimise crop losses and maximise profit margins. 

The startup also enables a marketplace where farmers can collaborate with different companies via contract farming. While farmers can buy raw materials such as pesticides and seeds from sellers, the FMCG, retail and exporter companies can buy agri-commodities from the farmers’ fields.

While BharatRohan is categorically an agritech startup, the use of drones is the product’s USP. With a drone, the startup generates a detailed map of a farm that characterises specific agronomic issues including nutrient deficiencies, disease infections, as well as pest and weed infestations. 

Its drones and satellite-based remote sensing imagery of fields, along with the corresponding historical climate and weather records, helps BharatRohan provide value addition to farmers to optimise their outputs. 

In March 2022, it raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Upaya Social Ventures and Acumen Fund Inc.

BonV Aero

• Founded In: 2021
• Founders: Satyabrata Satapathy, Uman Rathi, Abinash Sahoo, Gaurav Achha, Rahul Kumar, Sultan Khan
• Funding Raised To Date: $1 Mn (approx.)
• Investors: Inflection Point Ventures, Beyond Ventures Partners
• Headquarters: Bhubaneswar

BonV Aero makes electric aerial vehicles for goods and people mobility. It is developing heavy lift electric vertical takeoff & landing (eVTOL) vehicles for quick logistics movement in hilly Himalayan terrains to cater to the needs of Indian defence, disaster relief and response teams, emergency medical use cases, supply chain and quick commerce deliveries.

Its eVTOL RM001 comes with a 50 kg payload and a maximum flight time of 30 minutes.

The startup was incubated at AIC CV Raman Global University in Odisha. It has partnerships with institutions such as IIT Mandi and IIT Bhubaneswar.

BonV Aero has also been recognised among the top 10 startups selected by the Indian Army’s Army Design Bureau (ADB). 

In January 2024, the startup raised INR 6 Cr in a funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures. Earlier, it also secured the HDFC CSR Social Impact Grant.

Dhaksha Unmanned Systems

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Ramanathan Narayanan
• Funding Raised To Date: Undisclosed
• Investors: Dare Ventures 
• Headquarters: Chennai 

Dhaksha Unmanned offers seven drone-based solutions for sectors such as agriculture, mining, defence and surveillance. It manufactures battery-operated and petrol engine-based drones. 

In September, the startup received an undisclosed amount of funding from Coromandel International’s venture capital arm Dare Ventures. 

Prior to that, the Chennai-based startup along with 13 other drone companies got selected for the government’s PLI scheme that stimulates manufacturing drones and drone components in India. 

Interestingly, its drone named AgriGator has received ‘Type Certificate’ from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), according to its website.

It reported a revenue of INR 3 Cr while its profit stood at INR 2.3 Cr in the financial year 2020, according to Tofler. 

DroneAcharya Aerial

• Founded In: 2017
• Founder: Prateek Srivastava 
• Funding Raised To Date: NA
• Investors: Shankar Sharma, Aegis Investment Fund, Maven India Fund, Nav Capital VCC-NAV Capital Emerging Star Fund, Zinnia Global Fund
• Headquarters: Pune

DroneAcharya offers drone-based enterprise solutions to several industries such as oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, and agriculture. It also provides training for drone piloting, drone building, drone data processing, and using industrial drone applications, among others. 

In early December 2022, the listed drone startup secured INR 9.66 Cr in a pre-IPO round from Aegis Investment Fund, Maven India Fund, Nav Capital VCC-NAV Capital Emerging Star Fund, and Zinnia Global Fund. 

On the first day of its IPO, it saw a positive response and got subscribed 22.94 times. It was trading at INR 156.25 on the BSE as on 10 February 2023. 

Drone Destination

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Chirag Sharma 
• Funding Raised To Date: Bootstrapped
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Delhi

NSE Emerge-listed Drone Destination offers drone-as-a-service solutions across areas like survey and mapping, precision agriculture, surveillance, and asset inspection and to large-scale industries such as power, telecom, and oil and gas. The company also provides DGCA-certified drone pilot training in these fields.

Drone Destination manufactures drones for various industrial applications. For instance, its Staredge is a survey and mapping drone, while Agristar is an agri-drone for spraying. 

The company has developed drones for multiple other purposes with their endurance power varying between 15-50 minutes, based on applications.

Its survey-grade drone, Staredge, also qualified for Survey of India’s Swamitva scheme. The company was listed on NSE’s SME platform in July last year with its IPO oversubscribed 191.65X.

EndureAir Systems

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Dr. Abhishek, Rama Krishna, Chirag Jain, Dr. Mangal Kothari
• Funding Raised To Date: INR 13.5 Cr
• Investors: Sangeet Kumar, Prateek Jain, Bir Singh, Satish Kumar Shukla, Amit Kumar, Jalaj Dani
• Headquarters: Noida

Endure Air Systems offers personalised unmanned drones that can be utilised for various functions including border surveillance, logistics and aerial mapping, among others. 

In July, the drone startup secured INR 13.5 Cr in its seed funding round from Jalaj Dani from Asian Paints and founders of Addverb Technologies.

During that time frame, it claims to have manufactured more than 10 products. The startup holds five patents in landing technology and vertical takeoff segments. 

Additionally, it has collaborated with various government agencies including Uttar Pradesh Police, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), among others to date. 

Enercomp Solutions

• Founded In: 2013
• Founders: Jatin Patel
• Funding Raised To Date: $660K
• Investors: ah! Ventures 
• Headquarters: Ahmedabad

AI drone startup Enercomp offers service with UAV ‘drones’ and a variety of sensors for efficient and reliable data acquisition and processing, providing high standards analytics to gain insights into the data. 

“We had around 90% of revenue coming from the B2B sector and from the drone services business. We are launching our drones and our GIS platform and in fact, we have booked orders of around INR 35 lakh for products. With our strong positioning in the survey/inspection business, we aim to achieve the target of INR 2.5 crore in the current financial year with an increased share in the B2G business as well (around 40% of target revenue),” said Jatin Patel.

With its proprietary tech, Enercomp’s solutions have capabilities to cater to diverse sectors ranging from agriculture to industrial services to defence. 

Enord

• Founded In: 2021
• Founders: Muhammad Anas, Zain Saeed
• Funding Raised To Date: NA 
• Investors: NA 
• Headquarters: Delhi

Enord designs and develops an AI pilot drone, INSPECTOR, for B2B sector and government agencies. Its drone mainly conducts inspection of high-power transmission lines, telco-towers and thermal lines. Its drone also carries out inspections of day-to-day operations in various sectors.

Explaining its product offering, the startup shared that its AI drone INSPECTOR is operated in confined spaces without GPS or human intervention. It gives insights into how to improve operational efficiency of its clients. 

The startup is recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and is being incubated at IIITD Innovation and Incubation Center, according to its LinkedIn profile.

Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace 

• Founded In: 2022
• Founders: Suhas Tejaskanda
• Funding Raised To Date: Bootstrapped
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Flying Wedge is a drone manufacturing startup focussed on the defence and agriculture sectors. It supplies surveillance drones to various government organisations.

The startup claims to have built all the critical components of its drones in India. These components include the guidance navigation systems, flight control, propulsion systems, and propellers. Per the startup, only 15% of its components, including batteries and semiconductor chips, are imported. 

Currently, defence projects account for only about 10-15% of its total revenue while

agriculture drones drive the bulk of its earnings. However, with defence being the key focus, Flying Wedge has built a bomber, FWD200B, which can be used both for bombing and cargo purposes.

FlytBase

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Nitin Gupta 
• Funding Raised To Date: NA   
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Pune 

FlytBase offers drone-as-a-service (DaaS) solutions for surveillance and security, public safety, and construction. It also offers cloud-based software solutions to manage drone deliveries.

In November last year, it partnered with avionics tech company Iris Automation to integrate Iris’ Casia G ground-based detect and alert system with FlytNow. 

In December 2020, it had secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from early-stage VCs and angel investors. 

Garuda Aerospace 

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Agnishwar Jayaprakash
• Funding Raised To Date:$25 Mn+
• Investors: Ocgrow Ventures, Mahendra Singh Dhoni
• Headquarters: Chennai 

Garuda Aerospace designs, builds and customises drones for multiple purposes such as event photography, agricultural survey, reconnaissance and surveillance. Its product offerings include agri mapping, surveillance (drone), solar panel cleaning, seed dropping, loudspeaker, UGV, and Fixed-wing VTOL drone, among others. 

Notably, Garuda is one of the four drone startups that have partnered with the foodtech unicorn Swiggy for drone grocery delivery trials in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR. Besides, it has received orders of more than 8,000 drones from several countries including Malaysia, Panama, and UAE. 

In 2020, it carried out sanitisation operations in PM Narendra Modi’s electoral constituency. Its drones and pilots were also employed for disinfecting hospitals, public spaces and societies in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Chattisgarh. 

In June 2022, Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni invested in Garuda Aerospace. As a part of the deal, Dhoni joined its cap table and also became its brand ambassador. Prior to that, the drone startup had secured investment from Ocgrow Ventures along with a few angel investors from the banking sector. 

Recently, its founder shared plans of raising $100 Mn-$150 Mn in Series B funding in 2023 at a valuation of $500 Mn-$600 Mn. In October 2023, the startup raised about $3 Mn in a bridge funding round led by Venture Catalysts and WeFounderCircle.

The startup also aims to sell 25K drones by the end of FY24.

General Aeronautics

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Abhishek Burman, Kota Harinarayana and Anutosh Moitra
• Funding Raised To Date:  INR 6.5 Cr
• Investors: Mela Ventures, Adani Defence 
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

General Aeronautics, which was incubated at the Indian Institute of Science, offers drone-based solutions for crop protection services, farming, and yield monitoring services in the agriculture sector. Besides, it also offers medical solutions to government agencies and private organisations. Its team holds decades of experience working in research and development organisations across the globe. 

General Aeronautics provides an end-to-end crop protection solution that comprises agri drones named Krishak, an agri app and hub, as well as mapping and survey drones. Krishaks are employed for spraying agrochemicals, fertilisers and speciality nutrients. It sprays 50 droplets per sq cm and has the ability to cover 100 acres of land in a day. 

In May, Adani Enterprises’ subsidiary, Adani Defence Systems and Technologies acquired a 50% stake in General Aeronautics in an all-cash deal. Prior to this, the drone startup secured INR 6.5 Cr in its Pre-Series A funding round from Mela Ventures. 

ideaForge

• Founded In: 2007
• Founders: Ankit Mehta, Ashish Bhat, Rahul Singh, Vipul Joshi
• Funding Raised To Date: $45 Mn +
• Investors: Blacksoil, Infosys, Qualcomm Ventures, Indian Army
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Drone manufacturing startup ideaForge makes UAV systems for inspection, surveillance and mapping. Its solutions are used across sectors such as defence, homeland security, mining, construction, agriculture, energy and utilities.

As per its website, ideaForge has 20 patents and has completed more than 220K end customer missions. Its customers include the Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, all CAPFs (CRPF, BSF, NSG, etc), state police forces and Indian Railways, Survey of India, TAFE, NTPC, DRDO and L&T.

It has designed its vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAVs to help the Indian Army to have access to clear airspace or a runway. As a part of its contract with the Indian Army, the drone startup shall deliver 200 systems soon to augment the Army’s surveillance capabilities.

Thus, its high altitude version has a service ceiling of 6,000 mtr therefore, can do high altitude missions across even the high tension borders in the north and west. Its flagship product is SWITCH UAV, a 6 kg VTOL that can fly for more than two hours on a single charge.

In July 2023, ideaForge made a stellar debut on the Indian bourses at around 94% premium to its issue price. The company’s IPO comprised an offer for sale (OFS) component of 48.7 Lakh shares and a fresh issue of shares worth INR 240 Cr. 

IG Drones

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Bodhisattwa Sanghapriya, Om Prakash
• Funding Raised To Date: $1 Mn
• Investors: India Accelarator
• Headquarters: Delhi-NCR

IG Drones is a drone solution provider for drone surveying, mapping and inspection. Its significant advancement in the field is that it introduced India’s first 5G drone and drone simulator.

IG Drones claims to deliver end-to-end solutions through a vertically integrated approach, setting industry benchmarks with the 5G-enabled drone, Skyhawk. It specialises in providing services to sectors, including infrastructure, power, roads, railways, mines, water resources, oil and gas.

The startup has been engaged with various state governments in India to provide its services.

In February 2024, IG Drones bagged a procurement order from the Defence Ministry to supply drones for surveillance purposes. 

In March, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sambalpur for collaborative work in advanced applications of drone technology in business analytics, management strategies, and public policy.

Indrones

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Pravin Prajapati
• Funding Raised To Date: INR 7 Cr
• Investors: MapmyIndia
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Founded in 2015 by Pravin Prajapati, Indrones is a mapping startup that deploys drones to carry out topographic surveys, volumetric estimations, 3D modelling, and data collection.

Indrones manufactures three drones: the Sigma 25, Sigma 75, and Vector VTOL. The three drones have a flight ceiling between 400 m and 5,000 m, making them useful for different types of use cases, including construction, railways, disaster management, agriculture, mining and oil & gas.

Apart from manufacturing drones, Indrones also has a Drone as a Service (DaaS) platform. Indrones has raised a total funding of INR 7 Cr to date from MapmyIndia.

IoTechWorld 

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Anup Kumar Upadhyay, Deepak Bhardwaj
• Funding Raised To Date: $4 Mn 
• Investors: Dhanuka Agritech
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR

IoTechWorld is a drone Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) that makes drones for applications in agriculture, survey and surveillance. The startup has four products – an Agribot (a-DGCA approved agri-spray drone); a Surveybot (a DGCA-approved drone with LiDar and high-resolution camera, typically useful for defence purposes, Drishti comes with a range of payloads including EOIR, thermals, zoom cameras, radars, LiDars and Heavybot is used for logistics. Heavybot can carry up to 10 Kg payload. 

IoTechWorld plans to encourage indigenous products under the ‘Make In India’ initiative. It intends to expand its sales network and company-owned service stations in 10 states in India. It has about 25 dealers across India and would raise the number to 100 in future. IoTechWorld would launch its high-endurance drone models which can go up to 50-100 km. 

Marut Drones

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Prem Kumar Vislawath, Sai Kumar, Suraj Peddi
• Funding Raised To Date: NA
• Investors: Kiran Darsi and Parusharam
• Headquarters: Hyderabad

Founded by three IIT alumni, Marut Drones is one of the pioneering agricultural drone manufacturers in the country. 

The startup has developed drone-based agri-intelligence and agri-automation solutions for precision agriculture and the early detection of crop disease. Marut has been extensively collaborating with the Indian government to further facilitate the usage of Kisan drones for better agricultural productivity and more sustainable farming.

The startup has so far built four different drone models – Agricopter, Seedcopter, Marut ZAP, and Hepicopter. Its DGCA Type certified Agricopter, AG 365, serves across multiple applications – from seeing to harvesting. The startup claims to have sprayed over 10K acres of land.

Meanwhile, its Seedcopter solution has been made for rapid afforestation. The drone has planted over 50 Lakh seed balls across three states. Recently, the startup launched drone seeding in and around Agra and Ferozabad districts in UP.

Besides agri drones, Marut has built ZAP – a mosquito eradication drone. Further, its Hepicopter is a Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) medical delivery drone.

NewSpace Research & Technologies

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Rajinder Rana and Sameer Joshi.
• Funding Raised To Date: $21 Mn
• Investors: Pavestone Capital
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Bengaluru-based NewSpace also has an office in Delhi-NCR. It has signed contracts with the Indian government for delivering products to the armed forces. The startup specialises in swarm drones and is associated with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to develop products for surveillance and communications.

NewSpace has already delivered SWARM drones to the Indian Army. A swarm of 100 drones can be used for hitting targets at least 50 km into enemy territory.

The startup also plans to manufacture drones for civil uses. NewSpace uses technologies such as unmanned aerial systems, collective robotics, GPS-denied operations, augmented reality, virtual reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Omnipresent Robot Technologies

• Founded In: 2010
• Founders: Aakash Sinha
• Funding Raised To Date: NA
• Investors: Gruhas Proptech (Nikhil Kamath, Abhijeet Pai)
• Headquarters: Delhi

Omnipresent Robot Technologies is an industrial drone and robotics solutions provider that became the first drone company in the country to receive full clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs to conduct trials for long-range BVLOS operations in 2020.

Operational since 2010, Omnipresent has developed drone solutions for varied use cases, including survey, surveillance, and inspection, automated mapping, and precision agriculture, as well as in ecommerce, food, and medical delivery. 

During the pandemic, it worked with some government bodies to deploy drones for ensuring social distancing.

Omnipresent has also become one of the beneficiaries of the Indian government’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drone and drone components.

In 2022, the startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Nikhil Kamath and Abhijeet Pai’s investment firm Gruhas Proptech. The round also saw the participation of Kavin Shah and other high-net-worth individuals (HNIs).

As a robotics firm, Omnipresent has also worked on the Chandrayaan-2 project by developing navigation software for the Chandrayaan-2 rover.

Optimized Electrotech

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Anil Yekkala, Dharin Shah, Kuldeep Saxena, Purvi Shah, Sandeep Shah
• Funding Raised To Date: $2.8 Mn
• Investors: Starburst Accelerator and Venture Catalysts
• Headquarters: Ahmedabad

Defence tech startup Optimized Electrotech produces indigenous surveillance systems for security forces, national assets, defence and aerospace companies. 

It provides accurate, actionable and real-time insights about surroundings through autonomous, field-upgradable, secure platforms, as claimed by the startup.

The startup would like to design new-age surveillance systems, product innovations, and build more prototypes to be used in the railways sector, smart city and intelligent border projects.

Passenger Drone Research

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Anil Chandaliya and Vishal Dharankar
• Funding Raised To Date: ~$600K
• Investors: Bestvantage Investments, BizDateUp
• Headquarters: Nashik

Passenger Drone Research (PDRL) is a drone software company, which provides a SaaS platform, AeroMegh, that transforms drone data into actionable insights.

Its proprietary software is designed to deliver an end-to-end stack for flying and capturing, processing and analysing drone data.

One of its products, AeroGCS GREEN, enables improved precision spraying in agricultural lands. PDRL claims that the product makes it easy to plan and execute a spraying mission using an optimised and well-designed user interface.

Conversely, AeroGCS KEA seamlessly integrates with the cloud, serving as an efficient drone mission planner.

Another offering is DroneNaksha, a SaaS solution within the AeroMegh platform, catering to various photogrammetry needs.

Earlier in 2023, PDRL successfully secured INR 3.5 Cr in its Pre-Series A funding round.

Redwing Labs

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Anshul Sharma, Arunabha Bhattacharya, Rishabh Gupta
• Funding Raised To Date: $120K
• Investors:  Asymmetry Ventures and Techstars 
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Redwing Labs, the Bengaluru-based drone logistics system startup designs, manufactures and operates autonomous drone logistics systems. It aims at enhancing the last-mile healthcare supply chains. 

The initial idea behind the formation of the startup was to create drones for medical supplies and deliveries. Currently, the startup does around 80 deliveries a day. The last-mile delivery drone features climate control to enable temperature-sensitive deliveries such as vaccines.

According to the company’s website, the team has received a total of 15 awards in the United States of America and Asia-Pacific for best-performance drones and has been felicitated by key government agencies and industry giants in the US such as NASA, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Airbus.

Salam Kisan

• Founded In: 2022
• Founders: Dhanashree Mandhani
• Funding Raised To Date: Bootstrapped
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Salam Kisan is an end-to-end agritech startup with a major focus on providing drone services for agriculture. It offers drone-as-a-service for fertiliser spraying, seed spraying, farm mapping, and pest detection. 

With precision spraying technology, it claims to complete the task within 7-8 minutes per acre and has so far covered over 15,000 acres of spraying.

The startup also provides drone pilot training to rural youth with a special focus on training women pilots. Salam Kisan is now also foraying into drone manufacturing, with a plan to make 250 drones in the first go. 

Along with offering drone services, it also helps farmers with solutions like AI soli testing, AI crop calendars, and weather forecasts. It also connects farmers to agricultural experts via the Salam Kisan mobile app.

Salam Kisan currently operates in 22 districts in Maharashtra.

Skye Air

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Swapnik Jakkampudi, Ankit Kumar and Chandra Prakash
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.7 Mn
• Investors: LetsVenture, Chiratae Ventures, Lead Angels, O2 Angels, Agility Ventures 
• Headquarters: Delhi

Skye Air is a drone delivery startup largely focussed on healthcare, ecommerce, quick commerce, and agri commodity sectors. Its first BVLOS flight took off in September 2021.

Skye Air operates across several Indian states, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Haryana, and Meghalaya, from its shared and dedicated hubs. Since 2021, it has done numerous trials with companies such as Dunzo, Flipkart Health+, Curefoods, Tata 1mg, and Redcliffe Labs.

In June last year, Aster DM Healthcare and Skye Air initiated trials for essential medicines and critical lab sample delivery using drones from Kozhikode to Areekode in Kerala.

The startup claims that its drones have taken 2,150 flights so far, covering a total of 11,500 km and delivering 7,500 kg of items.

In November last year, Skye Air raised $1.7 Mn in its seed funding round led by Chiratae Ventures. 

Skylark Drones

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Mrinal Pai, Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy
• Funding Raised To Date: $3 Mn 
• Investors: InfoEdge Ventures, IAN Fund, AdvantEdge Founders, Fowler Westrup, Redstart Labs, IKP, Vimson Group 
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Skylark Drones provides end-to-end drone-based solutions that offer insights to help businesses scale. 

Its drones provide business intelligence to enterprises and believe industries ranging from infrastructure, mining, agriculture, utilities to oil & gas could benefit immensely from the reach, efficiency and productivity that drones offer. 

Skylark aims to provide geospatial intelligence to enterprises with its product called Spectra and Drone Mission Ops. Spectra enables worksite intelligence, several platform integrations and API access. Drone Mission Ops, on the other hand, enables project and fleet management for large enterprises and individual operators to plan and execute drone missions. 

Skylark’s computer vision software analyses aerial imagery to offer industry-specific insights to its clients.

The startup plans to further enhance insights from its drone data, to aid and simplify superior business decisions and strategy for its clients. It also intends to spur international product expansion and development of its drone data analytics-based products. 

TechEagle Innovations

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Vikram Singh Meena, Anshu Abhishek
• Funding Raised To Date: $500K
• Investors: India Accelerator, Vinners Group, Sitics Logistics 
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR 

TechEagle is a drone logistics airline startup for last and mid-mile deliveries. To make its vision a reality, TechEagle has already received approvals from the government of India (MoCA) and the regulators (DGCA) to conduct package delivery BVLOS (beyond the visual line of sight) flights in various parts of the country. 

The startup plans to launch new indigenous products, scale operations in India, and hire across functions.

The ePlane Company 

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Satya Chakravarthy 
• Funding Raised To Date: $20 Mn
• Investors: Speciale Invest and Antares Ventures, Anicut, Micelio Mobility, Naval Ravikant, Java Capital
• Headquarters: Chennai

The ePlane Company is building electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) flying taxis for urban mobility. 

The startup’s flagship product, e200x, is designed for up to 10X faster passenger commutes and cargo transport. The taxi can fly at a cruise speed of 160 km per hour for 200 km. 

After raising $5 Mn in 2022, The ePlane Company raised $14 Mn in its Series B funding round in November 2024. The startup aims to use a part of the funds to develop and certify its manned aircraft, with flight testing scheduled for mid-2025.

Its sister entity is Amber Wings, which is building drones for logistics, agriculture, and other commercial applications.

While both brands stem from The ePlane Company’s technological foundation, Chakravarthy told Inc42 that Amber Wings might be spun off into a separate entity in the future. 

Throttle Aerospace Systems

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Nagendran Kandasamy
• Investors: Neosky
• Headquarters:  Bengaluru

Throttle Aerospace offers drone solutions to the mining and agriculture sectors. Besides, its drones are also employed for capturing aerial images, and surveillance purposes. Its team holds over 15 years of experience in designing, engineering, manufacturing, software development and supply chain in the aerospace and defence industries. 

As per the website, Throttle is the first DGCA-approved drone manufacturer for civil drones. It has also got a licence from the Ministry of Defense for manufacturing military drones. Its manufacturing facility is spread across 10,000 sq ft in Kolar, Karnataka. 

In May, RattanIndia Enterprises’ subsidiary NeoSky acquired a 60% stake in Throttle Aerospace for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition would facilitate Neosky in offering all types of drone solutions including drones as a product (DAAP) and drone as a service (DAAS) etc to customers.

TSAW Drones

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Kishan Tiwari, Rimanshu Pandey
• Funding Raised To Date: INR 2.5 Cr
• Investors: We Founder Circle, Soonicorn Ventures, Chandigarh Angels Network, POD World, Qubit Capital, Zypp Electric, PedalStart, Kartik Hajela
• Headquarters: Delhi

TSAW Drones is a drone manufacturing startup based out of IIT Delhi, which works with companies to enable logistics via drones. The startup participated in the recently concluded Aero India Show 2023.

TSAW Drones’ logistics arm, DRONECO, facilitates a point-to-point drone delivery supply chain in urban and remote or rural areas of the nation. Users can also track their deliveries in real-time.

The startup provides last-mile delivery services via its three drones – Adarna V2, Adarna Mini and Maruthi 3.1. These drones have a range of 40 to 120 km and a payload capacity of 2 to 20 kg.

UrbanMatrix

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Rishabh Verma, Ashutosh Kumar, Divyanshu Pundir, Chitransh Chauhan
• Funding Raised To Date: $497K
• Investors: Sara Elgi, Laxminarayana 
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Urban Matrix Technologies specialises in micro drones and enables industries to easily leverage the power of aerial data by building compliant drone hardware, with proprietary software solutions. 

The founders spotted a gap between the available drone options and industry requirements. Taking photos and videos was not enough, industries require seamless integration of aerial data with their ongoing workflow in order to make real-time decisions that can save time and cost. The startup addressed this by generating actionable data via a dedicated cloud-based platform – UMT Console.

“For a long time, drone technology was limited to military applications. But now, commercial drones are rising with industries adopting them. A time when drones will become an essential part of human civilisation is much nearer than you have imagined,” said Rishabh Verma, CEO of UrbanMatrix Technologies.

UrbanMatrix has expertise in designing and manufacturing industrial drone systems along with world-class proprietary software infrastructure. It allows enterprises to not only control and manage drones but also effortlessly draw functional insights using integrated aerial data processing tools. 

The startup plans to work towards strengthening research and development, deepening market penetration and delivering industry-oriented solutions across verticals. 

The startup lately set a record by flying a drone from a distance of 3,000 Km via 4G technology. It flew the drone in Bengaluru while controlling the whole flight from Dubai.

VECROS

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Besta Prem Sai, Rajashree Deotalu
• Funding Raised To Date: $533K+ 
• Investors: 100xVC, Rebalance, OTP Venture Partners
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Vecros is building non-GPS autonomous drones that can function efficiently even in GPS-denied areas, using cameras and vision sensors.

Starting from the IIT Delhi campus, where its first aerial robot was developed, today, Vecros has brought in the power of robotics in its drones. Along with that, it has developed an AI-enabled software, JETPIX™ that uses AI and computer vision algorithms to make intelligent decisions so that the drones can match the capabilities of a pilot.

The startup, now based in Bengaluru, has also designed and developed its own printed circuit board (PCB). Vecros claims its PCB, JETCORE, is more compact, lightweight, and more compatible with the kind of hardware that it has developed.

The startup plans to deploy its drones across three sectors initially – construction, warehouses, and defence.

Vyomastra

• Founded In: 2021
• Founders: Kamalakar Devaki, Aneesh DN 
• Funding Raised To Date: Bootstrapped
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Vyomastra Technologies is a deeptech startup working on drones and anti-drone technologies. It is creating a comprehensive end-to-end full-stack drone and anti-drone platform.

Its product portfolio includes an AI-powered drone suite, which includes both platform and software, medical drones, surveyor and surveillance drones, and special-purpose drones. 

Vyomastra’s Voyager 5G drone comes with a payload capacity of up to 2.5 kg. Its surveillance drone is named Bhoomi PPK.

Meanwhile, Vyomastra’s anti-drone technology includes AI-powered sensor fusion-based drone detection and interceptors such as net throwers and RF jammers.

Vyomastra is a Nasscom CoE-IoT incubated startup.

This is a running article, we will keep adding more names to the list

Last updated on November 19, 2024.

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