Based out of the east Indian state of Odisha, BonV Aero, a deep tech company specializing in the manufacture of drones, is not a regular startup.
BonV became the first Indian startup to win the prestigious international startup competition ‘Meet The Drapers‘, where aspiring startup founders from across the world get to pitch their ideas before renowned venture capitalist Tim Draper.
The victory helped it clinch a $1.6 million grant from Draper- an exception to the rule of granting only $1 million to the winners.
This investment came on top of an earlier fundraising of ₹6 crore ($693,188) from a group of investors led by IPV Ventures.
The company is now aiming at a revenue of over $100 million in the next five years and also wants to make Odisha an aviation hub in the country.
Another factor that sets it apart is its high-profile clientele, which includes the Indian army and state disaster forces.
Air Orca and other planned innovations
BonV recently launched AirOrca, India’s first fully autonomous logistics drone that has the capability of carrying 15 to 20 kg of payload in violent terrains 18,000 ft.
While the Indian army is already deploying the platform to ease logistic supplies at such high altitudes, especially during the winter, BonV is now pushing the envelope and developing a drone with a payload capacity of 50kgs.
“With a 15 kgs to 20 kgs payload, you can only supply small quantities, but they have to transport larger supplies like kerosene, ammunition, etc. Therefore, this is what our team is working on right now in partnership with the Indian army. We say partnership because they are also helping us with a grant of Rs 10 crore to develop a 50kg platform,” Gaurav Achha, co-founder of BonV, told Invezz.
The indigenously developed platform will feature in-house designs for its airframe, propulsion, and software systems, Achha said, highlighting there is no other player in the industry that has been able to build a platform with such a high payload.
“Autonomous drones like Air Orca provide practical solutions for modern logistics by expanding reach, flexibility, and reliability with myriad use cases from disaster response to high-altitude operations for the defense forces. With the recent hurricanes in the US fresh in my mind, I anticipate that BonV Aero’s innovation can be an effective tool for disaster response in India and globally,” Draper, who flew down for the launch of AirOrca in Bhubhaneshwar last year, said at the event.
BonV Aero sets sight on the UK and the US
With a renowned Silicon Valley investor already betting big on the startup, does BonV have international aspirations?
“We are a company with a global mindset. We are Make in India for the global good,” Accha says.
The company’s co-founders are currently in the process of understanding the workings of the US Department of Defense and are eyeing it as a potential partner, while the company is also a part of the “Royal Navy framework” in the UK, Satyabrata Satapathy, CEO and co-founder of BonV Aero tells Invezz.
The startup has been selected to join the Unmanned Aerial Systems Heavy Lift Capability (UASHLC) Framework led by the UK Ministry of Defence, and the selection will help BonV to engage with the UK and other NATO countries.
The company sees commercial orders from the UK starting to come in from 2026 after getting the necessary certifications with the spadework already begun there, Satapathy says.
Plans to get into the air taxi sector?
While drone manufacturing in India is progressing fast, air mobility across the world is also taking significant strides, with electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturing companies like Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation seeing their share prices rise by 39% and 84% respectively in the last one year.
On the other hand, some others like the German aerospace company Lilium have struggled to meet their ambitions.
In India, the air taxi sector is still at a nascent stage but there have been some reports that Indigo is partnering with Archer Aviation for air taxi services between Delhi and Gurgaon.
Would getting into the air taxi space be a logical next step for BonV?
“BonV Aero’s long-term vision is to bring aerial mobility for goods and people. Goods are already happening right now and the people need it,” Satapathy says.
The low airspace economy which exists below 300 metres or 300 feet remains untapped right now and aerial taxis like Lilium, Archer, and Joby Aviation aim to utilize that space. How we plan to progress towards it is by creating dedicated parks for research in this area to get a deeper understanding of how to exploit this airspace and commercialise it.
Challenges faced by India’s deep tech ecosystem
BonV Aero is part of India’s growing deep tech ecosystem, which has seen increased investment and innovation in areas such as drones, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum computing.
According to one estimate, the Indian drone market is expected to grow to around $3 billion in size by 2030.
Aided in part by government support in the form of the Production Linked Investment (PLI) scheme which incentivizes producers by providing financial support to them, there are currently 478 drone startups in India, out of which 130 are funded, according to Tracxn.
Additionally, the Indian government, in its 2024 annual budget also established a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore with fifty-year interest-free loans to encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation in sunrise domains.
However, experts have indicated that a lack of effective execution has prevented the scheme from achieving its objective.
“The challenges arise due to a lack of a single widow system,” Satapathy says.
“It is not that easy for someone to explain the technology, and how it can benefit users. And, when you have to interact with so many people in the bureaucracy, sometimes the idea gets buried under files for a long time…sometimes only to kickstart these R&D projects takes a year or two due to bureaucratic delays,” he says.
People are not really empowered. Even if somebody has a delegation of financial power, he is not ready to exercise that. It is not the problem of the person but a problem of the post which has not exercised such powers in the past. It would help to have people with bold decision making skills, and they should be empowered by the PM himself.
Satapathy has also urged local governments to create an ecosystem for innovators by building parks that have the necessary plant and machinery that are often expensive to buy and own but which are necessary to advance the innovation process.
“It would also help if the customs are waived off on R&D products that are procured from abroad,” Achha says.
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