Latest news with #defencetech
Entrepreneur
12 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
The Capital Push Powering India's Defence-Tech Leap
India's defence-tech landscape is undergoing a revolution, driven by a mix of policy liberalisation, heightened geopolitical urgency, and an emerging breed of deeptech startups. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. India's defence-tech landscape is undergoing a revolution, driven by a mix of policy liberalisation, heightened geopolitical urgency, and an emerging breed of deeptech startups. Since 2020, the Indian government has actively encouraged domestic innovation in critical technologies through initiatives such as the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 and the iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) framework. These are aimed at reducing India's reliance on imports, which still account for around 36 per cent of India's total defence procurement, according to SIPRI data as of 2023. Venture capital firms like Speciale Invest have seized the moment. "We saw a generational opportunity," says Vishesh Rajaram, pointing to a strategic shift where private capital is beginning to back first-principles engineering in a sector historically dominated by government labs and public sector undertakings. Startups such as GalaxEye Space. QNu Labs, Astrogate Labs, and Kawa Space are technologies that previously lacked domestic equivalents. Startups like these are not only aligning with India's Indigenisation List (MoD, 2023) but are also exploring dual-use commercial applications across telecommunications, logistics, and energy. "At Speciale Invest, we invested early on India's defence-tech sector because we saw a generational opportunity, one where innovation is not just encouraged, but imperative. The convergence of deeptech capabilities in AI, autonomy, space, and advanced manufacturing, combined with a supportive policy environment, convinced us that India was ready to build mission-critical technologies from first principles," said Rajaram. Navigating defence's characteristically long development and procurement cycles, which often stretch more than half a decade, remains a hurdle. Yet, according to the Ministry of Defence's iDEX progress report, over 150 contracts have been signed with startups since its inception, signalling an unprecedented openness to private-sector innovation. Rajaram said, "Navigating long sales cycles and regulatory complexity requires patience, strategic alignment with defence end-users, and partnering with founders who understand the unique duality of this sector, where innovation must meet both operational reliability and sovereign requirements." Looking ahead, India's ambitions are global. The Ministry of Defence has set a target to increase defence exports to INR 35,000 crore (~USD 4.2 billion) by 2025, up from INR 15,920 crore in 2023. As Rajaram observes, India is poised to become a net exporter of cutting-edge technologies, particularly in Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT), ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) systems, and drone warfare, areas that are increasingly vital in both conventional and hybrid conflict scenarios. "The current geopolitical climate has accelerated demand for indigenous solutions, and we believe Indian startups will not only serve the domestic market but also become key players in allied export corridors," noted Rajaram. The evolving geopolitical landscape, from border tensions with China to maritime rivalries in the Indo-Pacific, has only intensified the need for self-reliance and export-oriented innovation.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Hot Money Monday: Elsight's hot streak continues as Halo becomes a battlefield essential
Elsight soars as defence tech takes the spotlight Halo racks up $22.9m in deals from one customer alone Battle-tested comms box becomes must-have for drones With tensions between Iran and Israel at boiling point, defence tech is once again back in the spotlight. And if you've been watching the ASX small cap space over the past month, you'll know Elsight (ASX:ELS) has been on an absolute tear. The stock has been a standout tech performer, up by 140% in the last 30 days. And it's not without reason. While some stocks rally on hype, Elsight's run is being driven by something much more tangible: contracts. Real ones. Deals that add zeroes to revenues and turn defence buyers into repeat customers. Driving all this momentum is its flagship, Halo – a smart little box that's quickly becoming the must-have nervous system for unmanned defence platforms across the globe. Halo isn't a drone. It doesn't fly, shoot or spy. What it does is make sure everything that does fly, shoot or spy stays connected. For autonomous systems, especially Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) missions, stable, real-time communication is everything. Drop the link and it's game over, literally. Halo solves that problem. It's a compact, lightweight, carrier-agnostic connectivity device that blends 4G, 5G, satellite, and radio frequency links into one seamless, always-on connection. If one network drops out, Halo reroutes traffic across another before anyone even notices. And it doesn't just react, it predicts. Thanks to what Elsight calls its '6th Sense' AI, the system constantly monitors signal quality and reroutes data in real-time to avoid interruptions. And the tech is battle-proven. Halo has clocked over 200,000 flight hours, with its AES-256 encryption ensuring secure, mission-critical comms. In contested environments, where reliability and cybersecurity are non-negotiable, Halo has earned its stripes. So it's no surprise defence customers are doubling, even tripling, down. Winning deals Since March, Elsight has been stacking contract wins, all with one European defence OEM. What started as a modest production order of around US$300,000 has now exploded into a full-blown rollout across 2025. That first March deal was the warm-up. Then came a US$4.28 million order in April, followed by US$5.35 million in May. And on June 4, Elsight locked in another US$5.08 million, bringing the total 2025 commitment from this single customer to US$14.7 million, or around $22.9 million. That's a sixfold jump on last year's revenue, all from one relationship that's still growing. 'This new order is an even stronger signal of market validation, not only from our direct customer but from the multiple defence end-users now relying on Halo across operational theatres,' said Yoav Amitai, the CEO of Elsight. But this isn't just a one-off spike or some flashy headline. The OEM is buying more Halo units because their own clients are stacking up; each new downstream customer is demanding Halo installed into their unmanned systems. And that kind of momentum feeds itself. The more platforms Halo lands on, the more entrenched it becomes. And in defence, once your tech is trusted and embedded, it tends to stay put for a long, long time. Battlefield proven The macro picture supports this shift too. Modern warfare is increasingly being shaped by unmanned platforms. They're cheaper, faster, and can go where humans can't. They're immune to fatigue, unaffected by G-forces, and don't come with the political baggage of sending soldiers into harm's way. But all of that hinges on one simple truth - you need a rock-solid, always-on link between the platform and the operator. Lose that, and your cutting-edge drone is just a fancy brick falling out of the sky. 'As our technology proves how it enables mission success, it spreads," said Amitai. 'This battlefield-proof growth reflects the deep confidence partners place in Elsight's ability to deliver resilient, always-on connectivity for the most demanding unmanned applications in contested environments.' Other ASX defence-related stocks Code Name Last Month change Year change Market Cap ELS Elsight Ltd 1.350 141% 193% $245,350,635 EOS Electro Optic Sys. 2.790 89% 111% $538,336,356 1CG One Click Group Ltd 0.009 50% -10% $10,600,919 DRO Droneshield Limited 1.810 47% 16% $1,582,915,326 HCL Highcom Ltd 0.240 30% 78% $24,643,841 ASB Austal Limited 6.240 28% 164% $2,628,163,475 3DA Amaero Ltd 0.340 26% -11% $234,735,550 OEC Orbital Corp Limited 0.110 18% 26% $18,125,769 CDA Codan Limited 19.700 16% 73% $3,576,945,587 BCT Bluechiip Limited 0.003 0% -25% $3,616,878 TTT Titomic Limited 0.290 -2% 258% $384,469,935 BIS Bisalloy Steel 3.260 -3% -17% $156,165,739 BRN Brainchip Ltd 0.205 -7% -5% $415,277,056 AL3 Aml3D 0.135 -10% 108% $72,594,980 AJX Alexium Int Group 0.007 -13% -30% $11,105,001 DroneShield (ASX:DRO) builds the tech that spots rogue drones and knocks them out of the sky. Used by militaries, airports, and critical infrastructure, it's a modern-day drone alarm system, supercharged with AI wizardry. Electro Optic Systems (ASX:EOS) designs remote-controlled weapons and high-tech optical gear for defence and space. If you've seen those gun turrets that track targets automatically – yep, that's them. Orbital Corporation (ASX:OEC) makes the engines that keep tactical drones in the air. Based in WA but supplying the US defence market, its job is to make sure these little aircraft fly further, longer, and without fail.
