Marut Drones plans to allocate funds towards several key initiatives, including the development of advanced agricultural drones tailored to customer needs, expanding its channel partner network and service centers into Tier 2-3 cities to better serve rural customers, and establishing drone agriculture service hubs to offer Drone-as-a-Service with a partnership approach. The company also aims to recruit professionals across all verticals, foster drone entrepreneurship, launch 17 new drone academies to train skilled professionals and enhance its research and development efforts in partnership with leading institutions in India to create advanced applications like direct seeding and crop monitoring.
Hari Krishnan, Director of Lok Capital expressed his enthusiasm for this transformative investment, stating, “We’re excited to partner with the team at Marut to bring solutions to farmers and the broader rural economy. Drones for agriculture are a novel technology that can secure the health of crops, while also saving water, preserving soil health, avoiding exposure to chemicals, increase yield to farmers and providing income to village-level entrepreneurs. Our investment in the company will support market expansion, new technology innovations, and indigenous manufacturing efforts.”
Prem Kumar Vislawath, CEO and Co-Founder, Marut Drones said, ‘We are excited about this fund raise and bringing on-board like-minded investors. This significant investment reinforces Marut Drones’ commitment to empower Indian farmers and develop applications for aggregating drone-based services for institutions across sectors. The fresh capital will also allow us to make investments in building our team, increasing our manufacturing capacity to 3000 drones per annum, and marketing to continue scaling at a rapid pace to reach a revenue target of 1000 cr in the next five years.”
Founded in 2019 by Prem Kumar Vislawath, Suraj Peddi and Sai Kumar Chinthala, Marut Drones has a goal of establishing a pan-India presence, thus positioning the company to play a pivotal role in modernizing agriculture across diverse geographies. While agriculture will remain a priority, Marut Drones is also exploring disaster management and surveillance applications, reinforcing its role as a comprehensive drone technology provider. Marut is committed to creating rural employment opportunities for tier 2 and 3 cities, contributing to enhanced productivity and reduced input costs for farmers. The company has grown to over 200 team members and has a fleet of 750 drones and over 1000 drone pilots across 14 states in India. Marut’s AG365H India’s first DGCA Type Certified medium category multi-utility agricultural and fish feeding drone was recently inaugurated by Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and Minister of Civil Aviation of India. Marut Drones is inviting partnerships from enterprising individuals, agri entrepreneurs, large agri input companies, agri equipment manufacturers, agri retailers/ dealers/ distributors for all its business activities – drone sales, drone service and drone training, to join in its journey in creating a revolution in the Indian agri industry.
About Lok Capital:
Lok Capital is a pioneering India-focused investment firm established in 2004 and investing out of its 4th fund into financial services, fintech, food & agri, climate & sustainability and healthcare. Lok is celebrating its 20th anniversary and is currently in its 4th fund, having delivered many successful exits across its portfolio in the previous 3 funds, including 8 IPOs.
About Marut Drones:
Marut Drones is India's foremost drone technology manufacturer, focusing on drone-based solutions to address persistent societal challenges. Established in 2019 by three IIT Alumni, Marut Drones is committed to advancing agriculture and building the agricultural infrastructure of the next century to ensure a sufficient, diversified, and safe food supply.
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