StartupXseed announces second investment in drone tech startup Aarav Unmanned System

StartupXseed Ventures LLP, a strategic seed funding company which runs Aaruha Technology Fund (SEBI Registered) to invest in startups focusing around areas of high technology businesses has announced their second investment into the company Aarav Unmanned System (AUS). StartupXseed is the lead investor in an undisclosed bridge round raised by AUS along with other investors and the funding will be used for new product development and team expansion. AUS is a venture in the industrial and agricultural asset management space leveraging drone technology. Backed by founders poised with deep technical expertise across electronics, artificial intelligence and aerospace engineering, AUS is aiming to achieve ‘Drone as a Solution’ from the Make In India stable, offering faster, more cost-effective and highly enriched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based land surveying solutions for the civil engineering, infrastructure and utility industries. AUS also aims to provide precision agriculture solutions to optimise irrigation, fertilisation, pesticide distribution and early failure warnings. Additionally, the company aims to provide thermographic data to detect hot spots and inefficiencies in power transmission lines, solar power plants and critical industries. AUS, Co-Founder Vipul Singh said, “The investment from StartupXseed comes with highly experienced and passionate set of people who perfectly understand the ecosystem and potential of the team. Best factor is that the present set of investors shares the same vision of creating a high impact technology driven indigenous product with AUS.” B.V.Naidu, Managing Partner, StartupXseed, commented, “We are glad to announce the Investment in AUS. We feel AUS team has the right composition to deliver the Business in Drone Technology Area. This Technology will become important in coming years and we are keen to encourage Domestic Product for Indian Markets and acquire global business. We are very excited about the team and opportunity which makes this as a unique investment.” The start-up was incubated at the SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre (SIIC) at IIT-Kanpur and has currently moved their corporate office to Bangalore. A common interest in aero-modeling and robotics brought the AUS team together. It was founded in 2013 by Nikhil Upadhye, Suhas Banshiwala, Vipul Singh and Yeshwanth Reddy, alumni of IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay and Amity University, Noida. They design and develop UAV-based solutions using own proprietary drone technology. The product range includes Nayan, an R&D platform for indoor navigation and other upcoming application oriented platforms with fully autonomous operations, lightweight and rapid deployment capabilities. The start-up is currently providing 3D mapping solutions to mining and urban planning sector, thermal and live aerial inspection solutions to power sector and NDVI based solutions to agriculture sector.