Kul Bhushan · · 1 min readEx-Blackstone India head’s VC firm leads $20m round of drone startup
India-based drone manufacturer ideaForge has raised US$20 million in a series B funding round led by Florintree Advisors, an investment firm helmed by former Blackstone India head Mathew Cyriac.
IdeaForge founders / Photo credit: IdeaForge
Infosys, Celesta, Qualcomm, Infina, and India’s Exim Bank also participated in the round.
The drone startup was founded in 2007 by Rahul Singh, Ankit Mehta, and Ashish Bhat – all alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
The company’s customers include state-owned oil and gas producer Indian Oil, government-owned railway system Indian Railways, as well as the country’s army, navy, and air force units, among others. The firm said its customers have conducted more than 230,000 missions using its drones.
Moving forward, the startup will use the fresh funding to invest in research and development and international expansion.
“We want to continue to create high-performance, reliable, and autonomous drones that inspire the adoption of this technology,” Mehta, who acts as the firm’s CEO, said in a statement.
In March 2021, ideaForge raised nearly US$2 million in funding from investor Blacksoil to meet working capital requirements to service its order book.
Editing by Deepti Sri and Jaclyn Tiu
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