Here's the success story of a startup which has 50% market share in drone industry

After spending years in obscurity, the Indian drone industry is starting to take off. While the sector is still in its infancy, it is expected to be worth more than $4 billion in a couple of years.

Several startups have entered the ring. But very few have managed to bag contracts from the Indian Army. ideaForge is a Mumbai-based drone developer which in April 2022 bagged $20 million in its Series B funding round from several investors including Florintree, Infosys, and Exim Bank of India, among others.

The movie "3 Idiots" was the first time many Indian households got acquainted with the concept of drones. And prototype of the drone used in the movie was developed by a home-grown start-up called ideaForge.

ideaForge is now a pioneer in the Indian Unmanned Aircraft Systems with a market share of nearly 50 percent in 2022. The company has nearly 20 patents registered. It has deals with Indian armed forces, state police forces and organisations like DRDO.

India is getting excited about the flourishing drone industry as it aims to be a global drone hub by the end of the decade. Steps like liberalisation of drone rules, rationalising norms for drone pilots and also establishing drone schools have given new direction to the industry. The allocation of around Rs 120 crore to the industry under the PLI scheme in the recent Union Budget acted as a booster dose for drone manufacturing in the country.

Even just a few years ago, drones were considered a niche industry but now investments are starting to pour in. Ankit Mehta, the CEO of ideaForge, which was formed in 2007, has witnessed a complete transformation in government policies and investments through the years.

Mehta says, "I have in a way seen the drone regulations go from ignored to denying to accepting to supporting. That whole cycle we have seen from the very beginning. And absolutely we are delighted to know that now it is the regime that is enabling it. It is a regime that wants to deploy these systems in an environment where we will now be able to take these systems and utilise their benefits without undue bottlenecks around the space we are operating in. As long as we are in those green zones upto that altitude we are free to use it for whatever purposes possible."

Apart from the production-linked incentive scheme for the sector, government is using drones effectively in schemes like SVAMITVA. It is an ambitious programme to survey and map about 6.6 lakh villages before 2025 to provide accurate land records and reduce property disputes.

Mehta says, "SVAMITVA Scheme is actually now the largest mapping programme in the world. The government is looking to map all the 6,60,000 villages in the country and create property cards of all the abadi areas - areas where the villagers live - so that they can have for the first time ownership of their own houses. Once you bring people into the economic mainstream, you can unlock their ability to create the necessary resources for their well-being and upliftment and business. So that is the major impact of the SVAMITVA scheme."

In 2021, ideaForge was awarded a contract worth $20 million by the Indian Army for SWITCH UAV.

As a part of its contract with the Indian Army, the drone startup shall deliver 200 systems soon to augment the Army's surveillance capabilities.

In a bid to boost domestic manufacturing, the government banned the import of drones in 2022 while exempting imports for R&D, defence and security purposes. However, there are no restrictions on import of drone components and India accounted for 22 percent of global drone imports as of January 2022.

ideaForge is also gearing up to fly into Dalal Street. It has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI for an IPO.

Global drone market is poised to become a $54 billion market by 2025. Due to initiatives like Atmanirbhar Bharat, drone manufacturing potential in India could be worth $4.2 billion by then. Considering all the efforts that are being put in, it won't be wrong to say, sky will be just the beginning for the Indian drone industry.