In situations where a soldier needs to know the situation beyond the next ridge, sending a patrol is slow and puts people at risk. Large drones are easily detected and audible from a distance, which negates the goal of covert observation. In such situations, a machine is needed that is small enough to be carried in a backpack and quiet enough not to attract attention.
These devices are created by the defense division of BotLab Dynamics, which is based at IIT Delhi. This company is known for using a thousand drones over Rashtrapati Bhavan during the Beating Retreat ceremony in 2022, as well as for record light shows.
Both parts of the business are based on similar core work. BotLab was founded in 2016 by Tamnaem Bunker, Anud Barnwal, and Dr. Sarita Akhawat. The swarm control software, which coordinates hundreds of drones into a formation over a stadium, is closely related to what is required to coordinate them over rough terrain.
In 2019, the company accepted a challenge from the Indian Air Force in Pokhran. According to its own data, the park that worked perfectly in Delhi failed in the desert because low-grade components used then perished from heat and dust. The company could not fulfill the task before senior military officials.
In response, the company began manufacturing its own parts. It now produces its own flight controllers, GPS modules, and electronic speed regulators instead of buying ready-made components. This distinguishes the machine operating in a demonstration from one capable of functioning in the field. Furthermore, it allows it to claim that its drones are manufactured in India, not assembled from imported parts.
The company's main defense product is Atri, a nano-class drone for reconnaissance and surveillance. It was developed with support from the iDEX grant awarded in 2023 to create India's smallest reconnaissance drone. The company describes Atri as designed for precise reconnaissance in high-risk areas and claims it can be quickly deployed to survey routes that forces need to monitor.
Alongside it is Vayusim, a training simulator that the company developed for defense sector users. It includes terrain and weather modeling, allowing operators to practice without the need for flights. Vayudh states that the company's systems have registered over 300,000 hours of autonomous flight, covering commercial drone shows, industrial inspection, and defense applications.
Vayudh raised $10 million, equivalent to about 83.5 crore rupees, in a round announced in April 2025, led by Dharana Capital. Participants in the deal included Dipinder Goyal, founder of Eternal Ltd, the parent company of Zomato, as well as Ajay Aggarwal from Action TESA, Sumit Jalan from LetsVenture, and Navam Capital. Previously, the company had received funding from Florintree Advisors.
Vamsi Duvvuri from Dharana Capital, commenting on the investment, pointed to India's rising defense spending and the push for domestic manufacturing as an opening market for the company, calling its swarm management technology field-tested. The funds will be directed towards research and development, increasing production capacity, and integrating systems into the armed forces. The company has about 200 employees, and its previous defense work included demonstrating heavy drones for lifting in Tvanga for the Army Design Bureau and showcasing swarm management systems to senior defense officials.
Atri was demonstrated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron at VivaTech in 2026. The company did not disclose the order volume, delivery volume, or client name, so the commercial aspect of this cooperation remains confidential.
Detecting small commercial drones crossing national borders at night presents a complex challenge. Such devices are too small for most radars, too inexpensive to warrant missile use, and can carry various payloads. A practical solution has proven to be not destroying them, but disrupting their communication by disabling satellite navigation and control signals, causing the drone to land, return, or crash.
Gurutvaa Systems is developing such equipment. Founded in Pune in September 2014 by Harshad Dave and Sonika Sehra, the company specializes in creating high-precision electronic systems, including inertial sensors, radio frequency components, radars, and automated testing equipment, alongside its line of anti-drone countermeasures for which it is known.
The company's main goal is to replace imported technologies. It positions itself as a developer and integrator of technology in India, striving to maximize the content of Indian components in supplied systems, especially in the field of defense electronics.
Work on counter-drone measures became extremely relevant for India after a series of incidents on the northern borders, where small aircraft intercepted while carrying payloads. Since systems to combat this threat were previously mainly imported, the government has since encouraged procurement from local Indian suppliers.
The product is called DRONAAM. The company describes it as a modular air defense system that can be configured as a handheld rifle, a backpack-worn device, or mounted on a stationary or mobile mount, providing coverage in one or full direction.
The system functions by disruption rather than destruction. According to the company, it jams satellite navigation, as well as control, video, and telemetry channels upon which the commercial drone depends, which is described as 'soft kill': the drone is rendered inoperable without the use of firepower.
The Indian Air Force ordered this system in August 2021. Gurutvaa reported that development, prototype creation, customer approval, and the first production batch were completed within eight months. The company's Vice President informed a defense publication in November 2022 that mass deliveries began after the Air Force team approved the production batch at the Pune facility.
Personnel training was also conducted. In 2022, the company stated that it had trained over 200 armed forces personnel in the operation and maintenance of DRONAAM, which is critical for a soldier-portable system.
According to the company's own data, DRONAAM devices were used in the Delhi area during the G20 summit in 2023, at the Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, Raj Ghat, and Akshardham venues.
The clearest external assessment came from the government. During the 60th anniversary of the Border Security Force in Jodhpur, Home Minister Amit Shah stated that the deployment of anti-drone systems increased the neutralization rate of incoming drones in the Punjab sector from 3% to 55%, naming DRONAAM as one of the responsible systems.
The company's business segment is small and growing. According to corporate reports, revenue for the year ending March 2025 was 8.08 crore rupees, compared to 5.91 crore rupees the previous year, and as of April 2026, the staff numbered 26 employees. The company's databases list one institutional investor, whose amount is undisclosed.
The company is part of the defense innovation structure iDEX and was presented among Indian companies at Bharat Innovates in Nice in June 2026, where it demonstrated a fully owned portfolio of anti-drone countermeasures patents and announced a search for procurement and integration partners. Its competitors in this segment include large public Indian defense electronics firms, as well as international drone countermeasures specialists.
Most artificial intelligence systems operate on remote servers: a camera or sensor collects data, sends it to the server, and awaits a response. However, this approach becomes inefficient with poor connectivity, limited power budgets, or the inability to transmit data from the site, which is typical for a significant portion of defense, industrial, and remote tasks in India.
The solution lies in executing models directly on the device, which eliminates the aforementioned problems but introduces a new challenge: the computing hardware must be compact and energy-efficient enough to fit onto a satellite payload, an industrial sensor, or a drone. Thus, before becoming a software problem, it is a chip design challenge.
The company Solutions was founded in 2018 as a spin-off of a research group on non-volatile memory and neuromorphic hardware at IIT Delhi, led by Professor Manan Suri, who is its founder. The company operates in the institute's Research and Innovation Park in Hauz Khas.
The research underpinning the company relates to neuromorphic technologies—hardware designed based on principles borrowed from the human brain, where memory and computation are integrated, rather than passing data between separate blocks. The advantage in efficiency is most noticeable where space and power consumption are constrained.
Cyran offers a comprehensive solution that integrates both hardware and software, not just one component. Its geospatial developments process images obtained from aerial and satellite platforms, combining data from multiple sensors to create what the company calls real-time situational awareness. The company's industrial line covers automated defect inspection and predictive maintenance. Furthermore, a third segment deals with selling educational kits for AI training, including a kit named BUDDHI.
The company describes its platform as capable of utilizing pre-trained models for over twenty types of sensors. These models can be deployed in cloud, edge, or isolated environments on specially designed hardware with dedicated AI accelerators. The company positions this result as a sovereign and compatible stack, meaning functionality that does not depend on foreign export licenses.
Manan Suri is known in this field independently of the company's activities. In 2018, he was included in the global list of 35 innovators under 35 from MIT Technology Review, has published over 85 scientific papers, and previously worked at NXP Semiconductors in Belgium and CEA-LETI in France before returning to India.
The company's recognition is largely tied to defense channels. In 2021, it won the iDEX competition, and in the same year, received the National Startup Award in Technology. In 2022, at the DefExpo exhibition, the company was awarded the Raksha Mantri award for excellence in the defense and aerospace industry in the startup category. Since then, it has participated in the Indian Space Symposium and was among the Indian companies presented at INDUS-X in Washington.
Defense press reported that the Indian Army signed a contract with the iDEX winning company for the development of AI-based satellite imagery. The scope of the contract or timelines were not disclosed.
The clearest external confirmation appeared in June 2026, when Safran Aircraft Engines announced an agreement with Cyran to develop AI solutions in the aerospace and defense sectors, covering manufacturing, maintenance, predictive analytics, and operational efficiency. Safran confirmed this through its own channels. At the same time, the company signed an agreement with the Dutch firm Innatera, which specializes in neuromorphic chips.
Information regarding funding has not been disclosed. Company databases record one round of funding from two investors, the amount of which is not revealed, and data on revenue or clients is currently not publicly available.
