India has emerged as one of the hottest destinations for drone startups, beating the UK and China in driving home fresh ventures, according to a Moneycontrol analysis.
The rise in drone startups goes back to 2021, when the government laid out the drone rules, relaxing norms on registration and removing the need for licences in some categories.
As of August 2024, data from Tracxn, a data platform, shows that India had 398 drone startups operating across the country, more than double the 157 startups that existed three years ago when the rules were implemented. China boasted 298 startups as of August, compared with 204 three years ago, whereas the UK’s ecosystem has expanded to 298 startups from 192 in August 2021.
The US leads the league, hosting nearly as many startups as the next six nations combined. From 858 startups in 2021, the number of drone startups in the US has surged 59 percent over the past three years.
Size matters
While the size of the Indian drone startups has grown faster than any other country analysed by Moneycontrol, its top startups still lag behind others in terms of funding. The average funding received by India’s top startups was $19.4 million this month, a nearly fourfold increase from $5.1 million in 2021.
While it pipped Australia with an average funding size of $18.5 million in August, the average size of its top startups was nearly a third of Israel’s and a fifth of China’s at $92.9 million.
The average size of the top 10 startups in the US was 31.5 times that of India’s.
Top Indian startups attracted $68 million in funding, whereas the top drone startup in the US had attracted $2.3 billion in investments. China’s top drone startup had attracted $319 million in funding till August 2024.
The ecosystem has also received a fillip with the government promoting drone manufacturing.
The government has given incentives worth Rs 120 crore over the past three years to Indian drone and drone parts makers under the production-linked incentive schemes.
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