Marut Dronetech raises $6.2 mn from Lok Capital in Series A funding
Marut Dronetech Pvt Ltd, a drone technology company with DGCA certification for manufacturing and training, has raised $6.2 million in Series A funding from Lok Capital.
Marut Drones plans to allocate the funds towards development of advanced agricultural drones tailored to customer needs, expansion of its channel partner network and service centres in Tier 2-3 cities, and to establish drone agriculture service hubs to offer Drone-as-a-Service.
In a statement, the company said it also aims to recruit professionals across all verticals, foster drone entrepreneurship, launch 17 new drone academies to train skilled professionals and enhance its research and development efforts in partnership with leading institutions in India to create advanced applications such as direct seeding and crop monitoring.
Hari Krishnan, Director, Lok Capital said: “We’re excited to partner with the team at Marut to bring solutions to farmers and the broader rural economy. 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 and generating income for village-level entrepreneurs. Our investment in the company will support market expansion, new technology innovations, and indigenous manufacturing efforts.”
Prem Kumar Vislawath, CEO and Co-Founder, Marut Drones said, ‘We are excited about this fund raise and bringing on-board like-minded investors. This significant investment reinforces Marut Drones’ commitment to empower Indian farmers and develop 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.”
Founded in 2019 by Prem Kumar Vislawath, Suraj Peddi and Sai Kumar Chinthala, Marut Drones has a goal of establishing a pan-India presence. While agriculture will remain a priority, Marut Drones is also exploring disaster management and surveillance applications, reinforcing its role as a comprehensive drone technology provider. The company has grown to over 200 team members, and has a fleet of 750 drones and over 1,000 drone pilots across 14 states.
Marut’s AG365H, India’s first DGCA Type Certified medium category multi-utility agricultural and fish feeding drone, was recently inaugurated by Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and Minister of Civil Aviation of India. Marut Drones is inviting partnerships from enterprising individuals, agri entrepreneurs, large agri input companies, agri equipment manufacturers, agri retailers/ dealers/ distributors for all its business activities – drone sales, service and training.