Adani Enterprises, managed by Gautam Adani, will purchase a 50% stake in General Aeronautics, a Bengaluru-based drone manufacturer, for an undisclosed price. The futuristic drone sector is seeing an increase in M&A activity. RattanIndia Enterprises, a publicly traded company, recently purchased a 60 percent ownership in Throttle Aerospace Systems, a Bengaluru-based drone company. It has previously invested in Matternet, a drone logistics network located in the United States.
Adani intends to use its military drone and artificial intelligence/machine learning skills, as well as its partnership with General Aeronautics, to supply agricultural solutions. The firm, which incubates new companies for the Ahmedabad-based group — India's third-largest conglomerate by market capitalization — has struck the agreement in General Aeronautics through its 100% subsidiary Adani Defence Systems and Technologies. By July 31, the purchase should be finalised.
According to its website, General Aeronautics was created in 2016 by three aerodynamicists: Abhishek Burman, Kota Harinarayana, and Anutosh Moitra. It has completed a Rs 6.5-crore funding led by Mela Ventures in January 2021. As of January 2021, according to startup tracker Tracxn, the firm had raised $2.2 million in total, valuing it at $8.4 million.
Several varied corporate organisations have struck deals in the drone market, not just Adani and RattanIndia. Reliance Industries bought a controlling stake in Asteria, a full-stack drone technology firm, in 2019. Tata Advanced Systems has bought a controlling stake in Aurora Integrated Systems, a Bengaluru-based maker of unmanned air systems. Piramal Enterprises had also invested in Bluebird Aero Systems, an Israeli startup. According to Niti Aayog, the domestic unmanned aerial vehicle industry would grow to $50 billion in the next 15 years.
