Chennai-based drone technology company Zuppa Geo Navigation Technologies is gearing up for an equity fundraise of up to $10 million as it looks to expand its technology development centre and engineering team.
The company, a supplier of indigenous defence drones to the Indian armed forces, is currently having discussions with strategic partners and foreign private investors, with the round expected to close by the next quarter, Founder and Managing Director Sai Pattabiram told businessline.
Pattabiram said that given the rate at which drone technology is evolving, there is a need for drone makers to adapt quickly and the expansions will help Zuppa achieve exactly that.
“Today, we are seeing that every two to three months, the technology behind drones and their deployment is changing.
Considering this, there is a lot more development required which also has to scale in the market very rapidly. So we want to set up a team and a centre that continuously upgrades and adapts,” he said.
Pattabiram added that a portion of the funds will also be earmarked for expanding the company’s footprint and customer reach both in India and particularly in the MENA and European markets.
Demand of armed forces
As drones increasingly take centre stage in warfare and defence, Pattabiram suggests that there has been an increase in demand from armed forces both in India and abroad.
“In India, individual army commands have seen as much as a 4X increase in their annual budgets. There are also plans to upgrade existing drones and for the emergency procurement of new drones somewhere in the region of ?10,000 to 12,000 crore. Globally, countries that are not on the right side of the ‘Chinese table', like India, the EU and GCC nations, are also looking for various components, primarily the technology layer and autopilot systems,” he said.
As a result, Zuppa is expecting significant growth both in India and abroad in the near term, he added.
The company delivered over 500 of its ‘Ajeet’ series drones to the Indian Army earlier this year and closed FY26 with a topline of ?8 crore. “This year we anticipate that we should be able to do at least about ?70-?80 crore. So about 10x growth is possible this year,” he said.
New Drones
On the product side, Zuppa is currently in the process of developing a new range of interceptor drones that act as swarms of loitering munitions – drones that are intended to fly into a target and detonate. These drones gained significant traction after the outbreak of the Iran-US war earlier this year.
Interestingly, the company is also experimenting on making these drones using plastic pipes rather than the traditionally used advanced composite materials. “We are looking at using material that can be sourced very easily and is significantly cheaper. It works out to be a very economical way of making drones,” he said.
Published on September 22, 2026
