Investor doubles down on Indian drone startups after IdeaForge bet soars

BotLab will use the fresh capital for product development as well as getting into applications in defense and surveillance.

Florintree Advisers Pvt. this month bought a 15% stake in BotLab Dynamics, an Indian drone maker that specializes in light shows, for about 200 million rupees ($2.4 million), according to Mathew Cyriac, the investment firm’s founder and a former Blackstone Inc. dealmaker. The transaction values BotLab at about 1.2 billion rupees, he said.

“We had evaluated at least 15 drone makers in India before this investment,” Cyriac said. BotLab “is a deep tech company which brought electronics, control systems and hardware together,” he added.

BotLab was established in 2016 at the technology business incubator unit at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, according to its website. Three years later, the country’s Army Design Bureau asked the startup to demonstrate its drone swarm technology with 10 drones. In 2022, BotLab put on a light show with 1,000 drones that formed images and transitioned from Mahatma Gandhi’s image to showcasing the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.

BotLab will use the fresh capital for product development as well as getting into applications in defense and surveillance, Cyriac said. It plans to export to other Asian countries and the Middle East later, he added.

The bet on BotLab came about a year after Florintree invested around 1 billion rupees in IdeaForge at a valuation of 8.5 billion rupees. IdeaForge earlier this month went public after an initial public offering that raised about 5.7 billion rupees. Its shares have risen nearly 70% from the IPO price, giving the company a valuation of around 47 billion rupees.

Florintree didn’t sell any shares in IdeaForge’s IPO and remains its single largest shareholder with an 11% stake. The investment generated a return of over 570% based on its latest market value, Cyriac said.

Cyriac joined Blackstone as its second employee in India in 2006 and eventually became the firm’s co-head for private equity in the country. He bought precision engineering firm Mtar Technologies Pvt. from Blackstone in 2017 when he left the buyout firm. Mtar’s shares have surged more than 270% since their debut in 2021.

Three other companies that Florintree is backing could go public in the coming year, Cyriac said. They are in the digital and precision engineering sectors, he added.