Drone maker ideaForge raises Rs 255 crore from anchor investors ahead of IPO

Several mutual funds, including ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Axis Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, Quant Mutual Fund, Nippon India Mutual Fund, and Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund, also participated in the anchor round.

The IPO consists of a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 240 crore and an offer for sale of 48,69,712 equity shares. It also includes a reservation for subscription by eligible employees.

The IPO, with a price band of Rs 638 to 672 per share, will be open for public subscription from June 26 to June 29. The estimated size of the IPO is Rs 550.69 crore to Rs 567.24 crore, depending on the lower and upper end of the price band.

The proceeds from the fresh issuance will be utilised for debt payment, funding the working capital gap, investment in product development, and general corporate purposes.

In a pre-IPO placement round last week, ideaForge raised Rs 60 crore from institutional investors, including Tata AIG General Insurance, 360 ONE Special Opportunities Fund, Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund, and Think Investments PCC. The company's order book stood at Rs 192.27 crore as of March 2023.

Founded in 2007 and based in Mumbai, ideaForge is known for having the largest operational deployment of indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in India.

Its drones are regularly deployed for surveillance and mapping purposes, with an average takeoff rate of one drone every five minutes. The company's customers include the armed forces, central armed police forces, state police departments, disaster management forces, forest departments, and civil customers.

ideaForge has received support from prominent ventures and private equity investors such as Qualcomm Asia, Infosys, Celesta Capital, and Mathew Cyriac-backed Florintree Enterprises, which holds an 11.85 percent stake in the company.