Garuda Aerospace, the Chennai-based drone company backed by former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has raised ₹25 crore in a fresh bridge round of funding led by Venture Catalysts and WeFounderCircle.
The funding round witnessed commitments from other notable investors, including Hems Angels, San Angels, Peaceful Progress Funds, and several prominent angel investors, which collectively capped out the funding round, according to a release.
The funds will be utilised to address the sudden demand for drone solutions. The company will allocate the funds towards working capital requirements, ensuring execution of the IFFCO drone order, and fulfilling the pre-booked orders from numerous dealers across the country.
Recently, Garuda Aerospace had a strategic partnership with Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited for a drone order of 400 units and a pre-booking of 10,000 drones from 700 dealers across the country. This led to a sudden surge in demand for the company’s drone solutions, the release said.
Garuda Aerospace’s Founder CEO, Agnishwar Jayaprakash, said that the fresh capital infusion will play a crucial role in accelerating the company’s growth and enhancing capabilities to meet the escalating market demand.
“We believe that this investment will not only strengthen Garuda’s position as a market leader but also revolutionise the way drones are utilised across various sectors, ultimately benefiting India’s tech ecosystem and agriculture industry,” Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Founder and Managing Director at Venture Catalysts, said in the release.
“Garuda is disrupting the drone ecosystem by introducing the micro entrepreneur business model for rural India. We believe in their vision to use drones for Bharat and feel that they will unlock a very big value for agriculture use of drone, by involving young rural entrepreneurs,” said Neeraj Tyagi, co-founder and CEO of We Founder Circle.