A Mumbai-based research and product development company ideaForge has bagged a $20 million order from the Indian army for its ‘SWITCH’ drone, reports Inc42.
The company reportedly plans to use the funding to meet the working capital needs to service its larger order book. Last month, it had raised $1 million (about INR 7.2 Cr) debt funding from the existing investor Infosys.
In 2016, Infosys had invested $1.5 million in the ideaForge’s Series A round. The $10 million Series A round was led by WRV Capital and IndusAge Partners.
Founded in 2007 by IIT Bombay alumni — Ankit Mehta, Ashish Bhat, Rahul Singh, Vipul Joshi, and Amardeep Singh — ideaForge claims to be India’s largest manufacturer of drones for defence, homeland security and industrial applications.
The company has more than 15 years of research and development (R&D) and 20+ patents in the Indian and international market.
It claims to have deployed more than 1,000 drones since its inception, and trained over 1400 pilots in services including Indian Army, Navy, Air-Force, all CAPFs (CRPF, BSF, NSG, etc), State Police Forces, Indian Railways, TAFE, NTPC, DRDO, L&T etc.
The use of the drones ranges from reconnaissance and surveillance, counter-terror, crowd control, disaster management to traffic monitoring, precision agriculture and industrial asset inspection.
The SWITCH drone
The website of the company says that the SWITCH is a first of its kind Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) and fixed wing hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and features advanced flight time, higher safety and simple operation with additional fail-safe redundancies.
The website further states that the drone is “all terrain dominator” and has been tested in extreme temperatures from -20°C to +50°C, high humidity, marine environment and dusty weather conditions to deliver reliable and consistent performance.
The specifications of the drone are given as follows:
Technical Specifications:
Payloads:
Ground Control Station Features:
Fail-Safe Features:
The ideaForge website states that SWITCH drone can be used for long duration operations, long endurance surveillance and security, inspection and photogrammetry.
The Indian UAV market
The future of the UAV market in India is bright with booming applications, both military and civilian.
A PWC report states that the Indian UAV market is poised to grow at the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent between 2017 to 2023 in terms of revenue.
The global market intelligence and advisory firm BIS Research predicts that the Indian UAV market will reach $885.7 million by 2021, while the global market size will touch $21.47 billion.
The sector is also set to benefit from the government push to indigenous defence production.
Comments ↓
An Appeal...
Dear Reader,
As you are no doubt aware, Swarajya is a media product that is directly dependent on support from its readers in the form of subscriptions. We do not have the muscle and backing of a large media conglomerate nor are we playing for the large advertisement sweep-stake.
Our business model is you and your subscription. And in challenging times like these, we need your support now more than ever.
We deliver over 10 - 15 high quality articles with expert insights and views. From 7AM in the morning to 10PM late night we operate to ensure you, the reader, get to see what is just right.
Becoming a Patron or a subscriber for as little as Rs 1200/year is the best way you can support our efforts.