Drone maker ideaForge raises $20 mn in Series B from Florintree, Infosys

Qualcomm, Infina and Exim Bank also participated in the funding round for company that serves Indian security forces

Drone manufacturer ideaForge has closed its Series B funding round of $20 million led by Florintree, a company led by Mathew Cyriac, the former private equity co-head for Blackstone India.

The round also saw participation from the company’s existing investors Celesta, a prominent technology investment fund, Infosys, Qualcomm and Infina, along with the Exim Bank of India.

Founded in 2007 by IIT Bombay alumni, ideaForge has over 15 years of research and development (R&D) history and it owns more than 20 global patents. Its customers include the Indian military, Adani group, L&T, Indian Oil, Survey of India, Indian Railways, among others.

ideaForge Co-founder and CEO Ankit Mehtas, said: “ideaForge is very happy to be associated with Florintree, which has a proven track record of helping organisations unlock enterprise value.”

“ideaForge has grown 10X in the last two years and we will use this funding to invest in R&D, international expansion and building a world-class team. We want to continue to create high performance, reliable and autonomous drones that inspire the adoption of this technology,” he added.

The Indian government expects the drone manufacturing industry to invest over Rs 5,000 crore over the next three years and generate 10,000 direct jobs. By FY24, it estimates the turnover of the drone manufacturing industry to grow to Rs 900 crore from Rs 60 crore now.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech in February, said the government will encourage startups to facilitate drone-as-a-service (draas). Drone-as-a-service allows enterprises to avail various services from drone companies, removing the need for them to invest in drone hardware or software, pilots, and training programmes.

The drone services industry is expected to grow to over Rs 30,000 crore in next three years and generate over five lakh jobs, according to the government.