Drones are being more widely employed in a wide range of industries, including agriculture, construction, and many others. They are no longer merely research tools used in science labs. The drone business in India is expanding quickly, and the “Drone Regulations 2021” issued by the Indian government have given it even more momentum. The new regulations are intended to lessen reliance on imports and encourage the growth of a local unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector. We’ll give a thorough overview of the leading drone businesses in India, their products, and their services in this post.
Dronix Technologies – Aero360
Another well-known drone manufacturer in India, Aero360 was established in 2017, and it specialises in creating high-performance autonomous drones for monitoring, surveillance, and industrial surveys. The business provides industrial security, inspections, and surveillance services in addition to drones. In the past four years, it has worked on more than 50 projects all throughout India.
Being a bootstrapped business, Dronix Technologies has benefited from funding provided by the MSME programme. Prices for its goods range from INR 300K to INR 3000K
Quidich Innovation Labs
Quidich Innovation Laboratories, a pure-play services company with offices in Mumbai, focuses in drone-aerial cinematography and photography. Rahat Kulshreshtha founded the firm, which has worked on a variety of well-known projects, including Bollywood movies and important athletic occasions like the Pro Kabaddi League and the Indian Premier League. Almost 350 film productions have involved it, with Gully Boy and Sanju being the most notable.
Dhaksha Unmanned Systems (DUMS) – Hybrid Agriculture Drones
Dhaksha Unmanned Systems, a 2019 startup, provides drone-based solutions for a variety of sectors, including agricultural, mining, defence, and surveillance. It provides both battery-operated and petrol-engine-based farm drones as part of its diverse product line.
Dare Ventures, the venture capital arm of Coromandel International, has invested an undisclosed sum in the firm. Dhaksha Unmanned Systems’ expertise is expected to be leveraged to introduce the “Drone as a Service” model in the agritech industry because Coromandel is currently engaged in agricultural solutions. It is also listed as a beneficiary of the drone PLI programme.
Skylark Drones
This Bangalore-based drone player doesn’t manufacture drones; instead, it focuses on drone analytics and job-site information, which help businesses make informed decisions. Customers come from a variety of industries, including agriculture, renewable energy, infrastructure, and mining.
Its 100+ business clients, which include Tata Steel, Hindustan Zinc, Hindalco, and Alstom, can choose from a variety of services, such as surveying, mapping, and inspection. Around 10 million photos have been taken and over 100,000 autonomous flights have been conducted by the business thus far.
In July 2021, InfoEdge Ventures and IAN Fund launched a pre-series A fundraising round in which Skylark raised USD 3 million.
Garuda Aerospace – Kisan Drone Services
Garuda Aerospace, situated in Chennai, offers a range of industries—including agricultural, infrastructure, and disaster management—cheap drone-based solutions as well as associated software and analytical tools. A number of honours, including an NDRF Award for its goods and services, have been given to Garuda Aerospace in recognition of its creative solutions.
The company’s Anti-drone technology, which was created in collaboration with the Defense Research and Development Organization, is its claim to fame (DRDO). Its anti-drone system uses a range of strategies, such as neutralisation and detection systems, to fight foreign hostile drones.
Garuda Aerospace is a participant in the drone PLI programme and has so far collected a total of USD 5 million in startup finance. Also, the business has partnered with Swiggy to test out grocery delivery in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR.
Aarav Unmanned Systems
Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS) is a tech firm that focuses on providing businesses with commercial drone applications. Surveying, mapping, industrial inspection, mining, highways, and railroads are among the drone solutions offered by this company. Around 55 Lac acres of land have allegedly been plotted by AUS for various projects throughout India, including 200+ mines, 35+ towns, and 25,000+ villages. Moreover, it provides software solutions, such as a drone data management system that may assist clients in better managing their data.
IIT Kanpur served as the incubator for this company, which has investors such as Anurag Ramdasan, StartupXseed Ventures, Shalini Prakash, The Phoenix Fund, GrowX Ventures, and 3ONE4 Capital.
Asteria Aerospace – Beneficiary in Drone PLI Scheme
Asteria Aerospace is a robotics and artificial intelligence startup that creates drone-based solutions to give actionable knowledge from aerial data. It was founded in 2011 by aerospace engineers Neel Mehta and Nihar Vartak. It is one of the 12 drone producers that have been shortlisted for the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) plan of the Indian government.
In 2019, a Jio Platforms subsidiary of Reliance Industries purchased the bulk of the drone company. It makes sense that the industrial giant employs Asteria’s technology to monitor its communication towers. Asteria, though, has greater intentions to provide drones as a service to businesses outside the Reliance group. According to reports, the firm brought in INR 21 crore in revenue in FY2022.