Hurun’s youngest new-economy Indian woman leader is 33, and she is building a drone major 

Meet Rithika Mohan, the 33-year-old co-founder and chief administrative officer helping build the Chennai-based drone company. 

The recognition puts the Garuda Aerospace co-founder among a new generation of women building businesses in emerging sectors. Mohan’s journey, however, is not centred only on her age or her presence in the male-dominated drone and aerospace industry.

It is also the story of an executive helping build the operational machinery behind one of India’s most prominent drone startups.

While drones, defence platforms and agricultural technology make up the more visible side of Garuda Aerospace, Mohan’s responsibilities extend to the organisational machinery required to turn those technologies into a scalable business. 

Mohan has been associated with Garuda Aerospace since January 2022. Her role covers strategic and administrative leadership, business and operational oversight, and board and corporate governance, according to the company.

Who is Rithika Mohan?

Mohan grew up in Chennai and did not begin her career with a background in aerospace or drone engineering.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Bengaluru-based Christ University and has also undertaken executive education at Harvard Business School. Her professional background includes experience in marketing, sales, administration, and real estate.

Before assuming a wider leadership role at Garuda Aerospace, Mohan was associated with PC Realty. She later joined the drone company as its chief information officer and was elevated as co-founder after spending around 18 months with the business.

Announcing the development in 2023, Mohan said she had “enjoyed, contributed and learnt” during her time at the company and was committed to helping Garuda Aerospace scale further.

She currently serves as the company’s co-founder and chief administrative officer. In November 2025, Mohan was also appointed as a whole-time director of Garuda Aerospace.

Building the systems behind the drones

The more visible side of a drone company lies in the aircraft it develops, the demonstrations it conducts and the contracts or investments it secures.

Mohan’s role has largely concerned what happens behind those announcements.

As Garuda Aerospace expanded, it needed internal systems capable of handling a growing workforce, investors, audits, regulatory requirements, government customers and projects spread across multiple sectors.

Mohan has been involved in building and managing that organisational infrastructure. Her responsibilities have extended across administration, operational reviews, compliance, governance and coordination between different functions of the company.

These responsibilities become particularly significant when a startup moves beyond developing a promising product and begins preparing for institutional scale.

For a drone manufacturer, this means creating processes that can meet the requirements of farmers, industrial customers, government agencies and defence establishments while maintaining operational and regulatory discipline.

From farm drones to defence technology

Founded in 2015, Garuda Aerospace initially built much of its business around agricultural drones.

Its machines were used for applications including pesticide spraying, crop monitoring and precision mapping. The company subsequently expanded its Drone-as-a-Service operations and developed training programmes for drone pilots.

Garuda Aerospace has since widened its focus to defence, surveillance, logistics, industrial inspections, disaster response and infrastructure monitoring.

This expansion has changed the nature of the business Mohan helps administer.

Agricultural deployments require the company to work with farmers, rural communities and agricultural institutions across a large number of locations. 

Defence and industrial projects, by comparison, demand stricter testing, compliance and coordination, with relatively little tolerance for operational failure.

Garuda currently manufactures around 15 defence-drone models, according to a Times of India report. It has partnered with Bharat Electronics to jointly develop unmanned aerial systems and also has partnerships with companies including Thales, Airbus and Lockheed Martin.

In August 2025, the company unveiled five unmanned aerial vehicle platforms. These included swarm drones, a battlefield payload-delivery drone and a high-altitude rescue drone. It is also developing a 76-acre drone park at Cheyyur, which is expected to support the research, testing and development of defence-drone systems.

Garuda Aerospace’s IPO ambitions

Garuda Aerospace entered another important phase in April 2026 when it reportedly filed confidential papers for an initial public offering.

As per a previous Financial Express report, the company is looking to raise around Rs 1,000 crore, including approximately Rs 750 crore through a fresh share issue.  Garuda Aerospace reported revenue of Rs 118 crore and a profit of Rs 17.5 crore in FY25. It had raised $49.5 million across nine funding rounds, the report added, citing Tracxn.

Garuda has drawn investor interest from a mix of institutional and individual backers. Venture Catalysts and We Founder Circle are among its early investors, while cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni holds a stake and continues to be associated with the company as a brand ambassador. 

A stock-market listing would require the company to demonstrate more than technological capability or rapid expansion. It would bring closer scrutiny of financial performance, risk controls, governance and execution.

That could also make Mohan’s responsibilities more significant.

As a whole-time director and chief administrative officer, she operates in some areas that lie at the core of to the transition from a founder-led startup to a company answerable to institutional and public shareholders.

Breaking into a male-dominated sector

Drones sit at the intersection of aviation, engineering, manufacturing and defence industries where women remain relatively less visible in senior positions.

Mohan’s career has required her to establish credibility in technical and institutional environments despite not beginning as an aerospace engineer. 

Mohan has built her position by managing some of the less glamorous but essential parts of scaling a technology company: reviews, escalations, organisational accountability and the systems required to ensure that different departments can deliver together. 

Hurun recognition at 33

Mohan has previously featured in Hurun rankings linked to India’s startup ecosystem. Garuda Aerospace was classified among India’s “Cheetahs” in the ASK Private Wealth Hurun India Future Unicorn Index, a category used for startups considered capable of reaching a billion-dollar valuation over a longer period.

Her latest recognition, as the youngest woman in Hurun’s inaugural dedicated ranking of new-economy women leaders, is more personal.It places her among women leading companies in sectors expected to play a larger role in India’s future economy.

But it also draws attention to a form of startup leadership that frequently remains overshadowed by fundraising, valuation and product announcements. Garuda Aerospace’s next stage will be shaped by its ability to convert its ambitions across agriculture and defence into a sustainable, well-governed enterprise.

Mohan’s role remains central to that transition. At 33, she may be the youngest woman recognised in Hurun’s new-economy ranking. Her larger achievement, however, will be determined by whether the structures she helps build can keep pace with Garuda Aerospace’s rapidly expanding ambitions.