Drone Startups are growing in leaps and bound as autonomous technology is improving — unmanned aircraft flown by a remote controller—have become increasingly usable across several industries. In today’s world, unmanned aerial vehicles have moved from a luxury to a necessity, especially given the current situation of social segregation and national lockdown brought on by the coronavirus outbreak.
Unmanned aircraft, often referred to as drones, have been used primarily for military operations for a long time. The application of improvements, however, may be seen for several reasons as they scale up. Some of the finest innovators have created various original drone solutions for the market’s rising need for drones. In this industry, many startups are expanding.
Drone technology has many uses and advantages. Its reach will keep growing and will soon significantly influence how we go about our daily lives. Private players would provide India’s drone startup ecosystem with the competitive edge it needs, boosting its value and vitality. Agriculture, intelligent cities, construction, and surveying are just a few areas that Indian drone companies use to increase productivity.
In addition, the growing need for intelligent avionics and the ever-increasing defense budget present several chances for India’s top drone companies. The Indian government will develop a legal framework and a more detailed plan by 2022 and 2025 to encourage further drone sector growth.
So now, without further discussion, let’s move on to India’s top 10 drone startup companies.
1. Zomato
Launched in 2008, Zomato is a global restaurant directory and meal delivery business listed on the Indian stock market in July 2021. Corporations heavily depend on drone technology to distribute meals to speed up and improve efficiency.
To build a hub-to-hub distribution network using hybrid multi-rotor drones, which was completed in June last year, Zomato acquired TechEagle in 2018. In contrast, Zomato is still working on developing drone technology to realize its ambition of using them to distribute meals. They have collaborated on the DGCA’s BVLOS sandbox with several startups and industry heavyweights like VI.
Furthermore, Zomato aims to grow its drone business faster than rival Swiggy, which may be investigating similar drone technology for food delivery.
2. Aarav Unmanned System Pvt. Ltd.
Aarav Unmanned Systems was established in 2013 and provided all-inclusive drone solutions, one of the biggest drone companies in India. AUS provides a drone, an operator, and a cloud platform for data processing as part of end-to-end integrated solutions for drone applications. It was also one of the three businesses the government picked to map the 600,000 villages in India.
Grip and Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS) have agreed to a 3.75 crore INR exclusive lease. As part of the agreement, Grip will use leasing finance for more than 50 drones to help AUS create new income streams. The firm claims to be profitable, with yearly sales growth of 25% over the preceding three years.
3. General Aeronautics
Abhishek Burman founded General Aeronautics in 2016. Its headquarters are in Bangalore, Karnataka. General Aeronautics specializes in designing and testing manned and unmanned aircraft and offers engineering design services. It provides the GA-1 unmanned fixed-wing UAV, which can do vertical takeoffs and landings and carry a range of payloads for various delivery and surveillance tasks. One of the top ten drone manufacturers in India is General Aeronautics.
4. Detect Technologies
A group of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras professors and graduates launched Detect Technologies in 2016 at the IIT Madras Research Park to help process industries achieve digital transformation for asset integrity solutions. Detected technologies enable the development of actual predictive capabilities and bring value to its industrial partners. They are found at the intersection of patented hardware and intelligent algorithms.
An intelligent drone for trustworthy asset inspection, the first entirely autonomous drone, Noctua, may be set up to satisfy the specific requirements of each piece of equipment, including columns, tanks, reactors, and other equipment, because the assets vary in size and position. Because of how predictable this flight path makes for a very repeatable periodic check. Noctua is the first drone in the world that can carry out an indoor planned flight thanks to its unique positioning technology. A modern thermal camera placed on Noctua has continuously maintained calibration by intelligent software.
5. RattanIndia Enterprises
The Rattanindia Group’s flagship company for new-age growth businesses is RattanIndia Enterprises Limited, a publicly listed midcap company in India. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary NeoSky India Ltd., RattanIndia Enterprises declared the launch of its drone business in September 2021.
NeoSky India will design a cutting-edge drone system platform with a focus on commercial applications in India, according to a press announcement. Additionally, the company has strategically invested in Matternet; a US-based firm focused on urban drone logistics and the drone logistics platform. However, the investment sum hasn’t been made public.
6. Thanos Technologies
In 2016, Pradeep Palelli founded Thanos Technologies. Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, serves as the company’s corporate headquarters. The business provides agricultural industries with Aerial Automation goods and services. They also offer drones to spray agrarian land. The firm also sells drones for various uses, including project monitoring, border surveillance, gas pipeline monitoring, power line monitoring, and maintenance of solar and wind power plants.
7. BharatRohan
About 6K farmers in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh will receive drone-based advisory services from BharatRohan, a tech-enabled end-to-end agri-enabler. The startup offers a four-part approach to boost profit margins, minimize crop losses, and maximize input usage.
The platform enables farmers and other businesses to work together through contract farming. Farmers can purchase basic supplies like insecticides and seeds through vendors, but FMCG, retail, and exporting companies can buy agricultural products directly from farmers’ fields.
BharatRohan is undoubtedly an agritech firm, but the usage of drones in the product is what sets it apart. The business uses a drone to create a precise farm map highlighting specific agronomic issues, including nutrient deficiencies, disease infections, insect and weed infestations, and more. To help farmers maximize their yield, BharatRohan uses drones, satellite-based remote sensing photos of fields, and historical climatic and meteorological data.
8. AerialPhoto (Event Digital Technologies)
AerialPhoto (Event Digital Technologies) aims to acquire and produce the most incredible aerial images currently on the market. National assistance by offering individuals services they cannot refuse. To never stop working and give customers the best aerial filming experience possible. The goal of AerialPhoto is to establish the highest standards in every area of the aerial industry. To have a wide range of business experience and to be a one-stop manufacturing organization. The company offers various services, including 360-degree virtual tours, real estate filmmaking, building site filming, aerial filming, and cinematography. It also provides a wide range of equipment to satisfy the various demands of its customers and clients.
9. DCM Shriram Industries
DCM Shriram Industries is a well-known drone firm in India that specializes in drone technology. The purchase of a 30% stake in the Turkish drone maker Zyrone Dynamics by the Indian company DCM Shriram Industries, which has received $1 million in foreign investment from India, in August 2021.
Both parties “envisage the creation of items for civilian use, notably for freight transportation,” the business said in a statement. Zyrone will market its products to India and its neighbors in Asia to eventually ship drones to Europe and Australia.
The partnership between DCM Shriram Industries and Zyrone Dynamics aims to build a global UAV company for various industrial and military applications. It is more than just an investment.
10. Indrones Solutions
The first step for Indrones was to enter the Dallas, Fort Worth SAE Aero Design 2013 Competition. The company started a career in the UAV market after winning the competition with spectacular success. The team at Indrones was one of the foremost in India to look into the use of UAVs in the civilian sector, working on a range of big and small projects and engaging with different governmental organizations. Indrones officially began operations in June 2015 and has since been operating on developing technology to produce solutions for various UAV-related applications.
The company claims that UAVs are a tool that the military can use to get situational awareness in real-time, by surveyors to obtain better data, by farmers to check crop health, and by filmmakers to produce previously incredible imagery. UAVs must be novel tools that are also easy to use, reasonably priced, and, most importantly, trustworthy and safe.
Wrapping Up
Without question, the drone industry is expanding quickly. The UAV sector is already well-positioned for rapid expansion. Drone companies in India are currently a topic of discussion, but many startups are competing for customers and growing swiftly in this industry.
Several other private enterprises and startups in India are working on drone technology, even though we only included the top six public drone firms.
We can only hope that this technology advances significantly and that drones will quickly lift and transport people and goods everywhere.
