Drone player Garuda Aerospace raises $22 mn, largest funding in Indian drone sector

Garuda Aerospace, the Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) player, on Monday said it has raised $22 million as Series A funding.

The funding round was led by Venture Capital firm SphitiCap which invested $12 million along with participation from other global investors, angel investors and high net worth individuals (HNI) at $5 million, according to Garuda Aerospace.

The startup earlier acquired another $5 million in funding from an infrastructure-development company, a group of HNIs, and angel investors from India, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.

The company will work with international firms in the aerospace and defence industries to scale up and conduct research and development in order to develop cutting-edge drone solutions for the armed services.

With a deeper presence in Tier II and III cities, the money will also be used to train and skill drone pilots and to help create jobs.

Speaking on the funding Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO said, "Garuda Aerospace aims to sell 25,000 drones in the next 18 months and is looking forward to exporting 10,000 drones to about 100 countries in the next 15 months."

Pallav Kumar Singh, Managing Partner, SphitiCap said, "Given the evolving preferences and horizontal expansion with the usage of drones in several sectors, there is a vision of promising growth beneficial for both companies. With this, drones will be playing a major in nearly every sector in the future."

With inputs from Agencies.