Homegrown defense technology company Vayudh has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Dharana Capital. Deepinder Goyal, founder and chief executive officer of Zomato (now Eternal), Ajay Aggarwal (Action TESA), Sumit Jalan, LetsVenture, and Navam Capital also participated in the round.

Earlier, the company had raised funds from Florintree Advisors. The fresh funds will be used to strengthen the company’s research and development (R&D) capabilities, expand manufacturing infrastructure, and accelerate deployments with India’s defense forces.

Vayudh, the defense vertical of BotLab Dynamics Private Limited founded in 2016 by Tanmay Bunkar, Anuj Barnwal and Sarita Ahlawat is a startup from IIT Delhi, building indigenous drone platforms for real-time battlefield intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. It has developed expertise in swarm drone technology, with over 300,000 autonomous flying hours in defense and other commercial applications like drone shows and industrial surveying. The company recently launched Atri, India’s first nano drone for precision surveillance and reconnaissance operations.

 

In 2023, Vayudh was awarded the Innovations for Defense Excellence (iDEX) grant to develop India’s smallest surveillance drone.

 

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Tanmay Bunkar, CEO of Vayudh, stated, “This funding marks a pivotal step in our journey to develop indigenous, cutting-edge defense drone technology of global standards. We remain focused on deepening our R&D pipeline and scaling manufacturing to meet growing demand from India’s defense sector.”

Vamsi Duvvuri, founder and managing partner of Dharana Capital, stated, “India’s rising defense spend and push for indigenisation have opened a rare window to build world-class defense tech locally. The Vayudh team brings exceptional technical depth in drone technology — their swarming tech is field-tested, mission-ready and built in India. We are excited to be part of their growth journey.”