Latest news with #AnkitMehta
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ideaForge Demonstrates UAV Prowess at U.S. Government-Backed Michigan's Uncrewed Triple Challenge
SAN ANTONIO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ideaForge Technology Limited, a global leader in drone technology, is proud to be recognised by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), a U.S. government body, to exhibit at the prestigious Uncrewed Triple Challenge (UTC) in Michigan, USA. As part of this recognition, ideaForge was awarded a $10,000 grant to support its participation at the event. The UTC is a first-of-its-kind, state-sponsored event that brings together uncrewed systems across sea, air, and land. Organized in collaboration with the Michigan National Guard, Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Department of Transportation, and the MEDC, the UTC aims to drive innovation in autonomous drone technologies by showcasing next-generation capabilities to a diverse audience of military, state, and local agencies. While ideaForge did not compete in the challenge, its invitation to exhibit underscores the trust and credibility placed in its technology by a prominent U.S. state institution. It also highlights the growing global recognition of India's indigenous UAV capabilities. At UTC, ideaForge showcased its flagship UAV solutions, the SWITCH and NETRA V4 PRO—demonstrating their advanced ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) features, operational endurance, and reliability across demanding mission profiles. These systems are designed for critical applications in defense, homeland security, and emergency response. Ankit Mehta, CEO of ideaForge Technology Limited, said, "We are honoured to receive this grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and to be invited to exhibit at the Uncrewed Triple Challenge. This recognition by a U.S. government body is a strong testament to the credibility, capability, and global relevance of our UAV platforms. We look forward to engaging with stakeholders from across defense and public sectors to demonstrate how ideaForge delivers autonomy and performance for mission-critical operations." Justine Johnson, Chief Mobility Officer, Michigan Economic Development Corporation added, "We are pleased to welcome ideaForge to the Uncrewed Triple Challenge. Their participation represents the spirit of innovation that this event aims to celebrate. ideaForge's UAV platforms will contribute valuable perspectives to our stakeholders and support broader dialogue around the adoption of advanced autonomous systems." ideaForge's presence at the UTC reinforces its expanding international footprint and commitment to delivering indigenous, high-performance drone solutions for defense and enterprise needs. The company continues to strengthen its position as a pioneer in drone innovation, with a focus on mission-critical applications that include defense, security, and enterprise use cases. As part of its growing U.S. presence, ideaForge has also previously announced a strategic collaboration with Skylark Labs and partnership and investment with Vantage Robotics further reinforcing its role in advancing drone technology through collaboration and cross-border innovation. About ideaForge Technology Limited ideaForge is a pioneer and the pre-eminent market leader in the Indian unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) industry. With a mission-first approach, we deliver cutting-edge drones engineered for unmatched performance, autonomy, and reliability, redefining possibilities in security, mapping, surveillance, and disaster response applications across militaries and enterprises. With India's largest operational deployment of indigenous UAVs, an ideaForge drone takes off every 3 minutes, enabling over 6,50,000 successful flights. Ranked 3rd globally among the world's Top Dual-Use Drone Manufacturers by Drone Industry Insights (DRONEII) Global Drone Review 2024, ideaForge continues to set benchmarks in innovation and excellence. Since pioneering India's first VTOL UAVs in 2009, we have expanded with advanced R&D and manufacturing hubs in Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, and the USA, driving the development of indigenously designed and built solutions. Backed by marquee investors, including Qualcomm, Infosys, Celesta Capital, Florintree, EXIM Bank, and Infina Finance, ideaForge is at the forefront of revolutionizing unmanned systems. Discover more: About Michigan Economic Development Corporation The Michigan Economic Development Corporation is the state's marketing arm and lead advocate for business development, job awareness and community development with the focus on growing Michigan's economy. For more information on the MEDC and our initiatives, visit For Pure Michigan® tourism information, your trip begins at Join the conversation on: Facebook Instagram LinkedIn, and Twitter. Logo: View original content: SOURCE ideaForge
Mint
09-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Indian drone makers see demand opportunity in border tensions, boost production
Anticipating a rise in demand for defence technologies due to escalating border tensions and deepening geopolitical unrest, Indian drone manufacturers such as IdeaForge, IG Drones, and Garuda Aerospace are boosting their production of surveillance and tactical systems. The India-Pakistan conflict has seen both sides deploy drones for warfare and surveillance. The Indian defence forces are known to have deployed Israeli-made so-called suicide drones on 8 May. But given that the tensions are far from ebbing, Indian drone makers are looking to cater to an expected rise in demand for such defence technologies. Also Read | US Army plans massive increase in its use of drones "Our teams are currently deployed in the valley. Many of our customers already use our technology, so we remain on standby, ready to enhance their operational capabilities," Ankit Mehta, chief executive officer (CEO) of IdeaForge said, adding that due to the sensitive nature of the situation, the company is not privy to how the Indian armed forces are using their assets on the ground. Mehta also refused to divulge details about the kind of drones - and quantity - that were being sought, saying that the information was sensitive. Also Read | Drone startups looking beyond defence to serve agriculture, quick commerce Similarly, IG Drones, a Delhi-based start-up, has ramped up manufacturing efforts in response to the growing demand for defence technology. Shuvam Dash, co-founder of IG Drones said that escalating border tensions have prompted the company to boost production. Govt procurement Likely procurements by the armed forces could provide some much-needed relief to drone companies, which have faced a slowdown due to delays in government contracts. On Friday, IdeaForge reported a ₹26 crore loss in Q4 FY25, marking its third consecutive quarter of losses. Despite these setbacks, the company's operating revenue rose 15% quarter-on-quarter, reaching ₹20.3 crore. Interestingly, in Q4 FY25, civil contracts accounted for a massive 96% of the company's revenue, with defence contracts contributing just 4%. Also Read | Insurance for RE, hydro projects in border states to rise amid conflict There is a growing emphasis on the need for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. Mehta explained, 'We believe it's crucial to have the capability to find, locate, and designate targets that are important for our national security. That's where ISR capabilities can play a vital role." In addition, armed drones and ISR are expected to be increasingly leveraged for retaliatory actions. 'What's very clear to us is that drones are going to be a de facto part of the infrastructure deployed for security and governance," said Mehta, emphasising the evolving role of drones in national defence. Investors like Cornerstone Ventures are doubling down on their belief in the long-term value of drones for national security. Cornerstone Ventures has backed NewSpace Research & Technologies, a key manufacturer in India's defence drone sector and co-developer of the indigenously built kamikaze drones, recently deployed across the border, according to media reports. "Large corporations in the defence space typically offer a bouquet of services, and when there's a ₹10,000– ₹20,000 crore defence budget, about 90% of it goes to those major players. But that's exactly where the innovation and unique strengths of startups come in," said Abhishek Prasad, managing partner at Cornerstone Ventures. These niche innovations can be crucial and often lead to partnerships with bigger players, who value the depth of expertise smaller firms bring, Prasad added. Even so, the road to profitability remains uncertain, as procurement processes continue to evolve—especially since larger players like Tata Advanced Systems Ltd and Adani Defence continue to dominate the space. Aerial platforms remain the focal point of this shift, leaving smaller and emerging firms to carve out niche advantages in a highly-competitive environment.
Business Standard
09-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Ideaforge Tech reports dismal Q4 outcome
Ideaforge Technology reported net loss of Rs 25.71crore in Q4 FY25 as compared with net profit of Rs 10.33 crore in Q4 FY24. Revenue from operations tumbled 80.14% YoY to Rs 20.31 crore in the quarter ended 31 March 2025. The company reported pre-tax loss of Rs 25.69 crore during the quarter as compared with profit before tax of Rs 14.14 crore in Q4 FY24. The manufacturer of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) reported a negative EBITDA of Rs 174.1 crore for the fourth quarter of FY25, compared to a positive EBITDA of Rs 202.5 crore in the same period last year. EBITDA margins stood at -85.7% in Q4 FY25, sharply down from a positive margin of 19.8% reported in Q4 FY24. Ankit Mehta, CEO, said, FY25 saw a substantial slowdown for the broader drone industry in India, owing to the general elections in the first part and then the slow progress towards procurement initiatives, despite the latent demand. The industry started to regain momentum at the end of the year with the new emergency procurement cycle for CICT operations going into tendering phase in Q4, along with trials of many other civil programs as well towards the end of the same quarter. And thus, while we did not see closure of opportunities to orderbook in Q4, we now see their healthy progression to our L1 pipeline. Our efforts to diversify our revenue base got bolstered at the AeroIndia 2025, where we unveiled the concepts of two new categories of drones, namely, our ZOLT platform for Tactical and YETI for Logistics, unlocking new opportunities and partnerships, such as our partnership with Resonia (Sterlite Group) for tower installation logistics. Our strategic investment in US-based Vantage Robotics has augmented platforms as small as nano drones (<250 g) to our portfolio. The year also marked our transition from a drone manufacturer to a drone solution provider delivering not just best-in-class drones to our customers, but also actionable intelligence through our developments, such as FLYGHT CLOUD for cloud data analytics and FLYGHT DOCKS for consuming Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS). With the launch of NETRA 5 and SWITCH V2, we have demonstrated our ability to build capabilities that can future-proof our forces with unmatched resilience, performance, modularity, and AI. With the augmentation of new categories and greater focus on the global markets, we are seeing increasing momentum towards international opportunities and partnerships. We intend to substantially increase the market opportunity for Indian drones globally and firmly establish them as a default part of the security, safety, and governance infrastructure of any country, city, or enterprise. Despite weak Q4 results, shares of ideaForge Technologies hit an upper circuit of 20 at Rs 463.20, driven by escalating geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan. The spike in investor interest followed reports of heightened conflict along the Northern and Western borders during the intervening night of May 8 and 9, boosting sentiment around defense and surveillance technology companies. Ideaforge Technology (ideaForge) is the pioneer and the pre-eminent market leader in the Indian unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) market. It had the largest operational deployment of indigenous UAVs across India.
Mint
21-04-2025
- Business
- Mint
Drone startups looking beyond defence to serve agriculture, quick commerce
India's drone startups are rapidly tapping commercial opportunities beyond defence contracts by expanding into healthcare and quick commerce deliveries, even as the sector struggles to scale amid regulatory fog, industry executives said. Companies like ideaForge, which started by catering to the Indian defence forces, are diversifying their client base within the defence sector itself, while others like Skylark Drones and Skye Air Mobility are consciously choosing to avoid government contracts altogether, instead betting on the private sector to scale faster. Ankit Mehta, co-founder of ideaForge, said that traditionally the firm wasn't offering drone-as-a-service—where companies rent or hire drones (and operators) for specific tasks rather than buying and operating the drones themselves. 'But now we are. We're building our own flavour of drone-as-a-service, which can be a really strong play for enterprise security and surveillance, as well as for law enforcement activities." However, Mehta pointed out that defence continues to remain their core customers. 'Diversification is important, but we're targeting different parts of the Forces themselves—whether it is for making deliveries within the armed forces or serving police and other law enforcement units." Mehta added that ideaForge is working on capturing a share of the US market, particularly in the homeland security sector. However, the recent changes with respect to import tariffs in the US have adversely impacted the speed of these conversions, he said. ideaForge's revenue declined by 80.6% year on year in Q3FY25 to ₹ 17.6 crore Some drone companies are preferring to completely avoid defence projects. 'Government in India is unfortunately not a very timely paymaster. You have to pay your employees and your vendors on day zero, but your customers might be paying you after six months," said Pushkar Singh, co-founder of investment firm Tremis Capital. Tremis Capital participated in the $4 million Series A funding round of Skye Air in June last year. Consequently, Singh explained that most drone companies are looking beyond defence projects to diversity their customer base. Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy, CEO of Bengaluru-based Skylark Drones, said the company didn't want to be limited to defence. "Most of our customers—almost all of them—are non-defence. We work only with private enterprises," he said. Skylark Drones' key clients include Tata Steel, Hindustan Zinc, UltraTech Cement, L&T and Reliance Infrastructure. 'We're currently not working with the defence sector at this point," said Ankit Kumar, CEO of Gurugram-based Skye Air Mobility, who added that less than 5% of the company's revenue comes from government-related projects. 'The real, long-term value lies in private sector adoption. That's where we see genuine traction. Today, less than 5% of our revenue comes from government-related projects." The rest of the revenue comes from partnerships and collaborations for drone-based logistics and deliveries, he added. In March last year, Skye Air Mobility bagged government contracts for medical supply delivery to 6 AIIMS hospitals and other regional government hospitals. 'Even when we work with state governments in healthcare, the goal is to use that access as an entry point—to open up those corridors for the private sector," he added. Skye Air Mobility plans to expand package deliveries across Delhi-NCR, after previously introducing a 7-minute drone service in Bengaluru, following on the heels of the quick commerce boom. Kumar added that they are currently focused on providing drone delivery services to enterprise clients rather than individual customers. Chennai-based Dhaksha Unmanned Systems, which is owned by Coromandel Industries, is looking to expand the use of its drone technology for farm applications over the next two years, including pesticide and fertiliser spraying through drones, Mint reported in March. Dhaksha had a greater proportion of defence contracts earlier, which is shrinking now. Investors are excited about the potential applications of drones too. 'We're seeing a wave of highly specific enterprise applications of drones, especially in critical industries like oil & gas, power, and mining. Drones make hazardous inspections safer and faster, while also monitoring transmission lines and enabling predictive maintenance. These targeted use cases are driving real value and accelerating adoption," said Vipul Patel, partner at IIMA Ventures. IIMA Ventures, set up at IIM Ahmedabad in 2002, backed ideaForge as an early investor, and exited following its initial public offering in 2023. IIMA Ventures has also invested in Nabhdrishti Aerospace during its pre-seed round in 2024 and seed round this year. However, India's drone regulations remain fragmented due to overlapping authorities, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) setting national policies while state governments, local law enforcement, and defence agencies enforce their own rules. This has prevented some of these startups from scaling. Operators may get central clearance, only to be grounded by local authorities citing security or airspace concerns. This results in inconsistent regulations and the need for multiple clearances before drone operations can begin. With temporary drone bans like the one recently enforced in Mumbai — from 4 April to 5 May — operational consistency also turns out to be a challenge. The ban was implemented due to concerns that drones could be used for attacks, target VVIPs, endanger public safety, or cause damage to public property. Some Indian states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana—have set up their own drone policies, aiming to position themselves as drone-friendly hubs. 'Drone delivery as a service, especially in urban spaces, is frankly a daft idea because it's simply solving a problem that's already been addressed. The true potential of drones lies in last-mile connectivity to hard-to-reach areas and the scalability is more likely to be in logistics and supply chains, rather than in crowded cities," said Ajay Kumar, partner at Triumvir Law, a law firm. There are other hurdles involved while operating in cities. Sky Air Mobility's Kumar explained that out of the last 365 days, the company was non-operational for about 75 days because of national security restrictions like around Independence Day, Republic Day, and Section 144 imposed during elections and VIP movement. There were other days lost to bad weather such as heavy rain, high winds. Drones cannot operate in red zones, which are sensitive areas such as the Army cantonment, or around airports, that typically form around 6-7% of certain cities, though the exact percentage can vary. 'If you look at Gurgaon, 93–94% of it is green and yellow. The red zone is just 6–7%. We're not really bothered about that—we're focused on catering to the 93%," Kumar said. In February this year, the ministry of civil aviation told parliament that 86% of India's airspace is open for operations—classified as green zone. Also read | New drone PLI to focus on R&D, manufacturing, may leave out testing Yet, not everyone is convinced about the current trajectory of drone startups. Tony Verghese, partner at law firm J. Sagar Associates, pointed out the increasing wariness of hype-driven fundraising cycles among legal professionals and investors. 'Drone startups seeking high valuations despite lacking substantial revenue or intellectual property does create significant legal and regulatory concerns within India's investment landscape…," said Verghese. However, Skylark's Ramasamy argued that rather than rushing to regulate, the focus should be on enabling them to scale first. 'The skies are not crowded with drones yet. So, we should empower more drone flights first, before regulating them. We're still far away from the adoption of drones in terms of the number of flights taking off. Those who operate responsibly will comply either way—those with malicious intent likely won't follow rules, regardless of whether they exist," said Ramasamy.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Startup Founded by Citi Alumni to Launch XRP-Backed Securities
Receipts Depositary Corp. (RDC), a start-up founded by a group of former Citigroup executives, is planning to launch XRP-backed securities, according to people familiar with the matter. This will give institutions access to XRP (XRP) securities through U.S. regulated market infrastructure. The company will offer depositary receipts similar to the American depositary receipts (ADRs) that represent foreign stocks on U.S. equity exchanges. The product will be offered to qualified institutional buyers only via transactions exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933. As such, it does not need approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Fox Business reported the news earlier Friday. The securities will be cleared by the Depository Trust Company (DTC), similar to RDC's already existing offerings of bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) backed securities. In a press release in January 2024, RDC founder and CEO Ankit Mehta, said that using depositary receipts brings many benefits, such as their 'tried and true structure, providing direct ownership of the underlying asset and easy inclusion in institutional products.' Several companies have taken steps to bring XRP to an institutional crowd as the native cryptocurrency of the Ripple network has seen tremendous growth over the past year. Several asset managers and exchange-traded fund (ETF) providers have applied for ETFs tracking the price of XRP. The difference between an ETF and depository receipts is that while shares in a potential XRP ETF would be redeemed for cash, depositary receipts would offer direct ownership of the cryptocurrency. Sign in to access your portfolio
