Tim Drapers, the legendary American venture capitalist, runs a pitch competition in the form of a reality show, called Meet the Drapers. The winner bags an investment of $1 million from Draper.  

But in Season 6 of Meet the Drapers, which concluded a couple of months ago, Tim was so impressed with the winner that he decided to up the investment to $1.6 m. That is how the Bhubaneswar-based drone start-up, BonV Aero bagged ₹14 crore. This investment came on top of an earlier fundraise of ₹6 crore from a group of investors led by IPV Ventures. 

But its turnover last year was just ₹2 crore.  

When a ₹2 cr company raises ₹20 crore in equity, a good guess is that there is something happening in the company. 

Aerial logistics

BonV Aero is already a supplier to Indian Army. It specialises in a type of drone that can fly high. It makes about 400 drones a year at its plant in Bhubaneswar. These drones, capable of vertical takeoff, can carry loads up to 50 kg to an altitude of 10,000 feet, but the start-up is developing, in collaboration with the Indian army, a higher version that can go up to 18,000 feet. Furthermore, these drones are capable of ‘self-flying’ -- no pilot is required, Satyabrata Satapathy, Co-founder and CEO, BonV Aero, told businessline recently. 

He said, such high altitudes are a technological challenge, as they must be higher-powered, which calls for different thermal management. 

Cutting-edge aerial vehicle

BonV is also developing a bigger drone that can remain in flight for 24 hours, with a range of 1,000 km. For these, the company is looking to raise another ₹10 crore, Satapathy said. 

Winning the ‘Meet the Drapers’ pitch competition was a big moment for BonV, he said. Draper, a legendary venture capitalist, has funded icons like Tesla, Skype, Baidu, SpaceX and, interestingly, Hotmail. Satapathy said that securing the backing of Drapers would give the company access to all the resources and handholding from the Draper ecosystem, which will fast-track the start-up’s growth.  

Satapathy recalled that winning the hotly contested ‘Meet the Draper’ competition was thrilling. As part of the competition, the participants were given $10 each and were asked to come up with the best trade deal possible, on the streets. Gaurav Achha, another of the six founders of BonV, exchanged his $10 for a bottle of Yamazaki, a Japanese whiskey, priced around $1,000. This, he managed by convincing the liquor store owner that the deal would get the store a wave of publicity. That trade deal titled the scales in favour of BonV Aero, helping it emerge the winner among 36 contestants, including two from India. 

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