Indian drone startup raises $3m in round co-led by Zomato backer

India-based Skylark Drones announced that it has secured US$3 million in its pre-series A financing round led by IAN Fund and Info Edge Ventures, which also backs foodtech firm Zomato.

Co-founders Mrinal Pai (Left) and Mughilan Ramasamy / Photo credit: Skylark Drones

AdvantEdge Founders, Fowler Westrup, Redstart Labs, IKP, and Vimson Group also took part in the funding round.

The fresh capital will be used by the drone company to spur product expansion into newer markets, develop drone data analytics products, and leverage insights from drone data to help businesses with decision-making.

Skylark Drones, which has offices in the US and India, provides geospatial intelligence to firms that operate in the fields of mining, solar power, real estate, agriculture, and inspection.

“Aerial intelligence is a theme that has immense potential, as it provides significant cost, time, and accuracy benefits for large infrastructure companies which face frequent cost and time overruns,” said Amit Behl, partner at Info Edge Venture Fund.

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The company also offers end-to-end solutions through Spectra, an integrated drone data platform that allows firms to visualize worksites and perform AI-powered analytics. The company also offers a couple of other products that help large enterprises and individual operators with fleet management and drone manufacturers to comply with local airspace regulations.

Firms such as Tata Steel, Ultratech Cement, and SoftBank Energy have used the company’s services in the past, Skylark Drones said in a statement.