Top Drone Startups in India [2022]

Top Drone Startups in India :

How great it would have been if your food or package were flown directly to your house by drones. Well, you’ll be excited to know that there are startups / companies in India that are working on these technologies.

Today, drones are not just used for security and defence purpose. There are many non-defence uses.

Drones provide enormous benefits to almost every sector of the economy. Agriculture, vaccine delivery, surveillance, search and rescue, transportation, mapping, defence, and law enforcement are just a few examples.

Drone Companies / Startups in India

Since The government has banned import of any type of foreign drones with immediate effect. India saw a 34.4% increase in the number of drone or UAV startups between August 2021 to Feb 2022 (From 157 startups to 221 Startups).

According to the Drone Industry Insights Report 2020, the worldwide drone industry is predicted to increase at a 13.8% CAGR to $42.8 billion by 2025. India’s unmanned aerial vehicle market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.9% between 2020 and 2026.

Indian Government Support For Drone Startups

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised that the Indian drone technology startup will get the full support of the government. In her budget speech, Indian Finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman spoke about the Drone Shakti scheme, encouraging drones as a service in our country.

The Government notified a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Indian drone manufacturers on 30 September 2021. The Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, hopes to make India a global drone hub by 2030 with an expected turnover of INR 15,000 Crores by 2026

The Drone Rules 2021 :

The Drone Rules were issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation of India. These are supersession of the earlier existing Rules. The new rules are tremendously helping drone start-ups/manufacturer as –

• The micro and nano drones users will no longer need a remote pilot’s license.
• The coverage of drones has been increased from 300kg to 500kg and will cover drone taxis.
• The rules also reduced the fees for permissions to operate drones.

What is the future of the drones in India

Drones have definitely changed from being used only for defence to being able to be used in many different fields, such as government, farming, and logistics, to name a few. Various companies are changing their stance and adopting drone technology. Drones are the future.

In this article, Sanchiconnect has compiled a list of Top Indian drone Companies / Startups with all details –

1. IdeaForge

Founders : Ankit Mehta , Vipul Joshi, Ashish Bhat, Rahul Singh

Start Year: 2007

Funding : $ 24.2 M ,  Series B

Investors :  Infosys Foundation, Florintree, WRVI, Qualcomm Ventures, Exim Bank of India

No. Of Employees : 151 to 250

Contacts : info@ideaforge.co.in, +91 8447612778

Head Office : Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Official Website : https://www.ideaforge.co.in/

IdeaForge manufactures best-in-class UAVs for defense and industrial applications. Their flagship product NETRA is used extensively by the Indian Armed Forces. Currently, the organisation has deployed over 700 systems and trained over 1300 pilots for services such as the Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, all CAPFs (CRPF, BSF, NSG, and so on), State Police Forces, Indian Railways, TAFE, NTPC, DRDO, L&T, and many others.

The Indian Army’s deployment in the final mile does not have access to clear airspace or a runway, thus it has constructed its Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) UAVs with this in mind.

As part of its contract with the Indian Army, the drone startup will deliver 200 systems to supplement the Army’s surveillance capabilities.

Products : Ideaforge manufactures best mapping and surveillance drones includes following :

• Switch UAV- A 6 kg VTOL that can fly for more than two hours on a single charge. Its a first of its kind VTOL and fixed wing hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. SWITCH features advanced flight time, higher safety and simple operation with additional fail-safe feature.
• NETRA V Series UAV : These are fully autonomous and highly man-portable small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The drone can be launched from confined spaces and can cover a large area out of human visual and auditory range with fail-Safe Features*.

Fail-Safe Features :

• Multiple GPS for redundancy.
• Return home on low battery.
• Return home on high winds.

Funding :

In April 2022, ideaForge received $20 million in Series B funding from a group of investors that : Infosys Florintree, Celesta, Qualcomm, Infina, and Exim Bank of India.

2. Garuda Aerospace 

Legal Name : Garuda Aerospace Pvt. Ltd.

Founders : Agnishwar , Jayaprakash

Founding Year: 2015

Funding : $ 30 M,  Series B

Investors : Mahendra Singh Dhoni , Ocgrow Ventures

No. of Employees : 151 to 250

Contacts : agnishwar@garudaaerospace.com, +91 7824833884

Head Office : Chennai, Tamil Nadu – 600018

Official Website : https://www.garudaaerospace.com/

Crafting human-centric technologies that lead to intelligence building & impact creation. Mining information dimensions that enable efficiencies and reduce redundancies, delivering analytics and insights that create large-scale impacts.

They offer low-cost Drone-based solutions, as well as related software and analytical tools, to assist businesses in increasing productivity and lowering costs.

This Chennai-based drone startup on June 22 announced that it has teamed up with Malaysia-based HiiLSE Global Sdn Bhd (HiiLSE Drones) to set up a 2.42 hectares drone factory in Malaysia with an investment of Rs 115 crore.

Products : 

• Agri Drone
• Mapping Drone
• Surveillance Drones
• Seeding Drones

3. AUS-Aarav Unmanned Systems

Legal Name : Aarav Unmanned Syatem Pvt Ltd.

Founders : Vipul Singh, Suhas Banshiwala

Founding Year: 2013

Funding : $ 748K

Investors : GrowX, 500 Startups, StartupXseed, 3one4 capital, Valpro

No. of Employees : 11 to 40

Contacts : info@aus.co.in,  080-25212997

Head Office :  Bangalore, Karnataka – 560064

Official Website : https://aus.co.in/

It’s a drone solution startup manufactures survey-grade drones and provides drone-based end-to-end integrated managed solutions for applications in Urban planning, Industrial areas, Smart Cities, Micro-Irrigation, Watershed, Mining, Power, and Infrastructure.

AUS provides high-value engineering solutions using drones to enterprises across multiple industries. The startup claims to be profitable, with annual revenue growth of 250 percent over the last three years.

Under the Indian government’s SVAMITVA scheme, the startup won a contract in October 2021 to deploy 80 drones across 4 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharatra.

AUS has mapped –

• 25000+ villages.
• 200+ Mines
• 35+ cities

4. Skylark Drones

Founders : Mrinal Pai, Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy

Founding Year: 2015

Funding : $ 3 M, Series A

Investors : Info Edge, IKP Knowledge Park,  AdvantEdge, Indian Angel Network Fund

No. of Employees : 11 to 50

Contacts : info@skylarkdrones.com, +91 9566840731

Head Office : IKP Eden, 16, Tavarekere Main Rd, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560029

Official Website : https://www.skylarkdrones.com/

Skylark Drones is a drone data platform company. It provides worksite intelligence for businesses operating in the infrastructure, mining, and utility space, solutions to manage drone operations, and compliance solutions.

The company has offices in both the United States and India. It claims that its platform has assisted 100 enterprise clients in processing over one million images and 20,000 autonomous flights.

Their drone data solutions for infrastructure help project management consultants, infrastructure developers, and surveyors cut down time and cost overruns – all on the cloud.

Products :

• Spectra – An integrated drone data platform to visualise your worksite and perform AI-powered analytics that helps teams plan better, construct faster, and sustain longer.
• Drone Mission Ops (DMO) : It is a full-stack drone flight solution that enables drone service providers, pilots, and enterprises to execute fast, accurate, and seamless drone missions
• DronePass : Light weight, low power, easy to use NPNT compliance solution

Funding : 

Skylark Drones, has raised $3 million in a pre-series A funding round led by InfoEdge Ventures and IAN Fund, with Redstart Labs , AdvantEdge Founders, Fowler Westrup, KP, and Vimson Group participating.

5. Throttle Aerospace

Founders : Nagendran Kandasamy

Founding Year: 2016

Funding :

Investors : Neosky

No. of Employees : 21 to 40

Contacts : contact@throttleaerospace.com , +91-80-41203422

Head Office : MVS Arcade,5th Road, OMBR Layout, Bangalore-560043

Official Website : https://www.throttleaerospace.com/

6. General Aeronautics 

Founders : Abhishek Burman, Kota Harinarayana, Anutosh Moitra

Founding Year: 2016

Funding : INR 6.5 Cr, Series A

Investors : Mela Ventures, Adani Defence

No. of Employees : 61 to 1000

Contacts : contact@throttleaerospace.com , +91 80-25654206

Head Office : Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Official Website : https://www.generalaeronautics.com/

General Aeronautics incubated at the Indian Institute of Science, provides drone-based solutions for crop protection services, farming, and yield monitoring services in the agriculture sector.It is mainly focused on B2B sales.

Adani Enterprises’ subsidiary, Adani Defence Systems and Technologies, acquired a 50% stake in General Aeronautics in an all-cash transaction in May. Previously, Mela Ventures contributed INR 6.5 Cr to the drone startup’s Pre-Series A funding round.

7. IoTechWorld 

Founders : Anup Kumar Upadhyay, Deepak Bhardwaj

Founding Year: 2017

Funding : $ 4 M , Seed

Investors : Dhanuka Agritech

No. of Employees : 11 to 40

Contacts : sales@iotechworld.com , 088102 73125

Head Office : Plot No. 1643, Sector 52, Gurugram-122001, Haryana

Official Website : https://www.iotechworld.com/

IoTechWorld is into Agriculture, Survey, Surveillance, Logistics segment of Drone. IoTechWorld is a drone Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) that makes drones for applications in agriculture, survey and surveillance.

Products : The startup has four products/Drones –

• Agribot : A DGCA approved agri-spray drone.
• Heavybot : Customizable drone for Logistics.
• Surveybot : monitoring drone for aerial survey.
• Drishti : A Vision over lands from the sky.

While developing affordable solutions, Iotechworld’s main goal is to make technology accessible to everyone in order to make their lives even better and more easy.

8. Cron System

Founders : Saurav Agarwala, Tushar Chhabra, Tommy Katzenellenbogen

Founding Year: 2016

Funding : $ 4.1 M, Searies A

Investors : Kitaki Ventures, Techstarter, Sunil Chhabra, VentureEast, YourNest Venture Capital

No. of Employees : 21 to 40

Contacts : connect@cronai.ai , +91 77959 85092

Head Office : C-42 Freedom Fighter Enclave Neb Sarai New Delhi

Official Website : https://cronai.ai/

CRON Systems is a deep-tech startup that provides innovative situational awareness sensing solutions. Its product’s services include a real-time audio interface, decision-making, live real-time C&C platform and encrypted communication systems.

CRON Systems  has raised $4 million (about Rs 29.3 crore) in funding led by VenturEast and Kitaki Ventures. existing investor YourNest Venture Capital also participated in the series A funding round.

9. UrbanMatrix

Founders : Rishabh Verma, Ashutosh Kumar, Divyanshu Pundir

Founding Year: 2016

Funding : $ 497K

Investors : SARA ELGI, Laxminarayana

No. of Employees : 11 to 20

Contacts : contact@urbanmatrix.co.in , +91 77959 85092

Head Office : Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Official Website : https://www.urbanmatrix.co.in/

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

UrbanMatrix has world-class proprietary software infrastructure and industrial drone design and manufacturing experience. Enterprises can use integrated aerial data processing systems to not only control and manage drones, but also quickly gain operational insights.

Products :

• UMT SparrowPPK : Mapping drone.
• UMT Hawk4G : Global Connectivity drone.

The startups has raised a funding of INR 1.2 crore. The Investment was made by Coimbatore-based SARA ELGI and seasoned businessman Laxminarayana. “The funds will be directed towards strengthening research and development” Said Rishabh Verma (CEO).

10 TechEagle 

Founders : Anshu Abhishek, Vikram Singh

Founding Year: 2015

Funding : $ 336.0k

Investors : India Accelerator, iB Hubs

No. of Employees : 11 to 20

Contacts : info@techeagle.in , +91-8173895211

Head Office : 2nd & 3rd Floor, Sector-45, Gurgaon, Haryana, 122003

Official Website : https://www.techeagle.in/

TechEagle started in the hostel garage of IIT Kanpur by Vikram Singh to solve the problem of healthcare and logistics accessibility in rural and urban areas. Founded in 2015, TechEagle specializes in long-range, high-speed drones that can deliver heavy payloads.

Their drones can take off and land vertically, giving operators the flexibility to control them from any location.

It is a drone logistics airline startup for last and mid-mile deliveries. TechEagle has already received approvals from the (MoCA) and the regulators (DGCA) to conduct package delivery BVLOS (beyond the visual line of sight) flights in the country.

The TechEagle founders were featured in Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list of 2022

Products :

• Vertiplane X3 : Vertiplane X3 is the FASTEST Made-In-India hybrid e-VTOL drone with a maximum speed of 120 km/hr, distance coverage of 100 km and a payload capacity of 3 kgs with Fail-Safe features.

“TechEagle aims at creating a network of On-Demand Drone Delivery for healthcare to save and impact a million lives by reaching hard-to-reach areas.” Said Vikram SIngh Meena CEO & Founder of Techeagle Startup.

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Conclusion

The world is witnessing drone technology disrupting almost every major industry. Today’s drones can do far more than just take images and videos, thanks to 4G/5G, AI, and smart manufacturing.

Hope we see flying drones all around, lifting weights, and delivering food in the near future.

FAQ

How many drone startups are in india ?

221 Drone startups.

Are drones a growing industry?

Yes, It is a rapidly growing industry. By 2028, the global drone market will be worth $ 63.05 billion with a 16.1% CAGR, according to Verified Market Research.

Is Investing in Drone Startups Profitable ?

Yes, it is viable option in India. Venture capitalists are showing increased interest to back Indian drone startups after the govt recently introduced liberalised regulations for the sector with PLI (120-crore) scheme to boost it.