Drone manufacturing and training startup Marut Dronetech announced on Tuesday that it has raised $6.2 million in Series A funding from Lok Capital. The latest capital infusion will be used to develop advanced agricultural drones, expand the channel partner network and service centres into Tier 2-3 cities to cater to rural customers and establish drone agriculture service hubs to offer Drone-as-a-Service.
Marut Dronetech said it also aims to recruit professionals across all verticals, foster drone entrepreneurship, launch 17 new drone academies to train skilled professionals and improve its research and development efforts in partnership with various institutions for advanced applications such as direct seeding and crop monitoring.
Speaking on the new round, Prem Kumar Vislawath, CEO and Co-Founder of Marut Drones, said this significant investment reinforces Marut Drones’ commitment to empowering Indian farmers and developing applications for aggregating drone-based services for institutions across sectors.
“The fresh capital will also allow us to make investments in building our team, increasing our manufacturing capacity to 3,000 drones per annum, and marketing to continue scaling at a rapid pace to reach a revenue target of 1,000 crore in the next five years,” said Vislawath.
Founded in 2019, drone technology provider Marut Drones is also exploring disaster management and surveillance applications other than its key focus on agriculture. The company has a fleet of 750 drones and over 1,000 drone pilots across 14 states in India.
“Drones for agriculture are a novel technology that can secure the health of crops, while also saving water, preserving soil health, avoiding exposure to chemicals, increasing yield to farmers and providing income to village-level entrepreneurs. Our investment in the company will support market expansion, new technology innovations, and indigenous manufacturing efforts,” said Hari Krishnan, Director, Lok Capital.
Initially launched for defence purposes, use cases for drones in India have evolved to explore the delivery of vaccinations and medical supplies, gadgets, food, groceries, and more.
According to the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Indian drone sector is expected to grow to Rs 120-150 billion (Rs 12,000-15,000 crore) in size by the year 2026.