On April 22, 2025, Indian defence technology company Vayudh raised $10 million in a funding round led by Dharana Capital. The round also included Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, Ajay Aggarwal of Action TESA, Sumit Jalan, LetsVenture and Navam Capital. This follows an earlier investment from Florintree Advisors and marks Vayudh’s biggest fundraising so far.
Vayudh is the defence arm of BotLab Dynamics Private Limited and was founded at IIT Delhi in 2016 by Tanmay Bunkar, Anuj Barnwal and Sarita Ahlawat. The startup designs and builds home-grown drone platforms for real-time battlefield intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. To date, its drones have recorded over 300000 autonomous flying hours in defence operations and commercial projects such as drone shows and industrial surveys. Last year, Vayudh launched Atri, India’s first nano drone for precise surveillance and earlier secured an iDEX grant to develop the country’s smallest surveillance drone.
The company will use the new funds to boost research and development, expand its manufacturing facilities and speed up deployments with India’s defence forces. CEO Tanmay Bunkar said, “This investment marks a key milestone in our journey to build world-class, home-grown defence drone technology”. Vamsi Duvvuri of Dharana Capital added, “India’s rising defence budget and drive for domestic production offer a great opportunity to develop advanced defence technology locally” and he praised Vayudh’s proven expertise for mission-ready operations.
