India: Drone startup Garuda Aerospace raises USD22M in Series A Funding Round
India-based drone startup, Garuda Aerospace, recently raised USD22 million in a Series A Funding Round led by venture capital firm SphitiCap, reports a press release. The company has invested USD12 million with the rest coming from a variety of global and angel investors.
Pallav Kumar Singh, a Managing Partner at SphitiCap, commented. “Garuda Aerospace has built different types of drones and are a leading player in the drone sector and one to watch out for.” Adding, “Drones will play a major role in nearly every business sector in the future.”
Garuda Aerospace said in a statement. “These funds will be used to scale up and expand operations, as well as being used for R&D, training drone pilots, and helping create new employment by increasing our footprint in both Tier 2 and 3 cities.”
Agnishwar Jayaprakash
The startup aims to achieve significant dominance in rural areas, where its drones “enhanced with payload capacities, endurance, quality of sensors, and data embedding with more technology solutions” can improve accessibility, reduce transport costs and offer fast delivery times.
Garuda Aerospace aims to sell 25,000 drones over the next 18 months and is looking to export 10,000 of them to around 100 countries.
Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO of Garuda Aerospace remarked, “After my recent experience at Davos, it is clear we have the potential to scale globally with the drone manufacturing based in India. We aim to help India become the drone hub of the world by 2030.”
This confidence is assisted by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi Ji, who helped the launch of 100 Garuda Kisan Drones to 100 villages during 2022. Meanwhile, the famous former Indian cricketer, MS Dhoni, who was captain, batsman and wicketkeeper of the India national side has recently joined Garuda as a brand ambassador and shareholder. At the age of 41 years-old, Dhoni now plays cricket for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.
MS Dhoni (image: Chennai Super Kings)
Founded in 2015, the company today has over 200 staff; a fleet of 400 drones; and a team of more than 500 operators across 26 different Indian cities. Garuda’s drones are globally used across various business sectors including agriculture, mapping, infrastructure, defence, mining and project inspections. Its website states “Our goal is to become India’s first drone unicorn startup by impacting one billion lives.”
For more information
https://www.garudaaerospace.com
(Top image: Garuda Aerospace)