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Hyderabad-based Marut Drones designs unmanned vehicles for crop planting, spraying and surveillance in rural India. It operates a fleet of about 750 drones in 14 states.
Marut Drones says it is creating rural employment opportunities and has trained more than 700 drone operators to date.
The $6.2 million in Series A equity financing from impact investment firm Lok Capital will enable the company to ramp up drone production and expand its training and certification academies for operators.
Policy momentum
Agriculture drone startups for crop surveillance and seed planting have had a bumpy ride in terms of venture capital funding. But in India, drones are getting a boost from government initiatives like SVAMITVA, which is using drones to help rural residents identify, demarcate and title their plots of land. The government’s Drone Didi initiative trains women in rural areas as drone operators. It highly subsidizes the cost of acquiring drones and provides two weeks of drone pilot training for agriculture, disaster management, healthcare and infrastructure.
