Agnishwar Jayaprakash

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FY25 has been special for Agnishwar Jayaprakash, the 34-year-old founder and CEO of Chennai-based drone startup Garuda Aerospace. The company, which reported revenue of over ₹100 crore for the second consecutive year, also forayed into the defence segment. It sold nearly 3,500 drones and clocked over 100,000 flight hours in drone services, especially in the agriculture sector, where its drones are largely used for pesticide spraying. For the past couple of years, 60% of Garuda’s revenues have come from selling services, with the rest from drone sales. However, all that is likely to change given the company’s defence thrust. “In the next one or two years, we might have a symmetry where we have more of product sales, and eventually it might just be services. That is the bigger market for us,” says Agnishwar. Having raised ₹100 crore in funding recently, Garuda is expanding its manufacturing footprint with a new 35,000 sq. ft unit in Tamil Nadu. “We will be able to achieve 75–80% indigenisation, which, in the past, would have been 35–45%,” he adds. With the recent war-like situation fuelling India’s defence spending projections, Garuda hopes to capture a significant portion of the drone procurement market. Its partnerships with leading defence tech companies, including Lockheed Martin and Elbit Systems, are expected to provide a significant boost. Agnishwar is also bullish on the farm sector, given that India currently has only 10,000–12,000 agricultural drones in a market estimated to be around 1 million. “We are eyeing export markets in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, where we have bagged orders,” he says.