Hyderabad firm Marut Drones raises $6.2 million, to spread wings
The Hindu
Marut Dronetech secures $6.2M funding from Lok Capital to enhance drone production, expand network, and drive growth.
Marut Dronetech has raised $6.2 million, a Series A funding from Lok Capital that is expected to aid the Hyderabad-based drone maker spread wings by sharpening focus on product development, enhance manufacturing capabilities and expand channel partner network.
“The fresh capital will 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 ₹1000 crore in the next five years,” CEO and co-founder Prem Kumar Vislawath said.
The existing capacity is 300 drones. Founded in 2019, Marut Drones’ focus is on catering to agriculture sector. It is also exploring disaster management and surveillance applications towards emerging as a comprehensive drone technology provider. The company, which is also into drone training, said it has grown to over 200 team members and has a fleet of 750 drones and over 1,000 drone pilots across 14 States.
In a release on the fund raise, Marut Drones said it plans to allocate funds towards several initiatives, including development of advanced agricultural drones tailored to customer needs, expand channel partner network and service centres into tier 2-3 cities to better serve rural customers and establish drone agriculture service hubs to offer drone-as-a-service. Across all verticals, it aims to recruit professionals besides promoting drone entrepreneurship, launch 17 new drone academies to train skilled professionals and enhance research and development efforts towards creating advanced applications like direct seeding and crop monitoring.
“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, increase 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,” Lok Capital director Hari Krishnan said.
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