A look at Garuda, the drone startup behind Swiggy’s air-delivery plans

Chennai-based Garuda Aerospace’s founder and& CEO Agnishwar Jayaprakash tells us about the company’s roadmap to redefining delivery service in India

In the increasingly cut-throat war between delivery apps, Swiggy recently unveiled what could be their most effective weapon yet: a partnership with Chennai-based drone startup Garuda Aerospace to deliver groceries in Bengaluru by deploying drones. Garuda, which recently welcomed cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni on-board as investor and brand ambassador, is among the leading aersopace firms in India to spearhead drone food delivery — another is Skyeair Mobility, whose drones will be delivering food for Swiggy in Delhi-NCR.  

Agnishwar Jayaprakash, founder and CEO of Garuda Aerospace, says he wants to introduce the idea of “groceries at your doorstep in seven to 10  minutes” in India. “If you are to measure the quickest time and the fastest route between two points, the result is always a straight line,” he says, adding “But when one travels on road, it’s a roundabout route. Exactly there comes the viability of goods delivery through drone technology.”  

The drones, customised to carry grocery items, have now found another use. They are now carrying relief items and helping deliver aid to flood-hit Assam.

This is not the only marker of his firm’s success, however. Garuda has been making its mark for a while.

Valued at $250 million, the seven-year-old Garuda Aerospace boasts a fleet of 300 drones, and has bagged 8,000 drone orders from Malayasia, East Africa and South American countries, according to Agnishwar. Explaining why India is a preferred supplier, he says, “the firmware and the software work is done securely here, so there are no concerns about information security”. Garuda Aerospace has supplied drones to the likes of L&T and Adani, besides collaborating over various projects with Wipro, Intel, Tata Voltas, IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee, Delhi metro’s CISF unit, Varanasi smart city and ISRO, etc.. The drones are involved in a wide range of jobs, including solar panel cleaning, warehouse management, spraying of fertilizers, seeding fields and stringing transmission lines.  

“Currently we have a team of 120 permanent pilots, and about 400 more are on contract basis,” says Agnishwar adding they are currently in the process of raising a $30 million fund for series A round at a valuation of $250 million.

“We have over 100 active projects going on right now,” he states, adding, “We had 24% profit margin last year, which is rare for a startup. Our forecast is to have manufactured and sold 40,000-50,000 drones by the end of the financial year 2022-23.”