Zomato investor Info Edge has invested in a drone startup helping Swiggy make deliveries

• The Swiggy-Skylark consortium got the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s approval to carry out their drone test experiments.
• Skylark Drones will use the latest funding to enhance its drone data analytics and offer more actionable insights.
• The company provides work-site intelligence to enable accurate business decision-making using drone data.

Bengaluru-based Skylark Drones, which is helping food delivery app Swiggy get its drones off the ground, has raised $3 million (about ₹22 crore) in its pre-Series A funding round co-led by Zomato’s investor Info Edge Ventures and Indian Angel Network (IAN) fund. Fowler Westrup, AdvantEdge Founders, Redstart Labs, IKP and Vimson group also participated in this round.

Zomato’s rival Swiggy has partnered with Skylark to test out its drone delivery system. The Swiggy-Skylark consortium, along with 19 other consortiums, got Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MoCA) approval in June to carry out experimental drone flight operations in India beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS).

Founded in 2014 by Bengaluru-based engineers Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy and Mrinal Pai, Skylark Drones had raised its seed round in 2018. The company provides work-site intelligence to enable accurate business decision-making using drone data.

Skylark Drones will use the latest funding to enhance its drone data analytics and offer more actionable insights. The capital will also fuel the company’s international product expansion and development of its drone data analytics products.

The company has offices in the US and India. It claims to be helping 100 enterprise clients, who have processed over one million images and 20,000 autonomous flights via its platform.

“Aerial intelligence is a theme that has immense potential as it provides significant cost, time and accuracy benefits for large infrastructure companies which face frequent cost and time overruns. Skylark has built an indigenous platform that facilitates quick mobilisation of independent drone pilots, enabling them to run drone missions to gather aerial images of large worksites,” Amit Behl, partner at Info Edge Venture fund said in a statement.

Meanwhile, IAN’s managing partner Rajnish Kapur highlighted that the global drone software market size is projected to reach $9.96 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.05%.

“With the rising adoption of advanced technologies such as AI and ML, Skylark Drones’ solutions can unlock potential while increasing productivity and ensuring safety of work-sites. What impressed us most was a strong and unique business model – one that is easily scalable in India and beyond,” he added.

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