New Delhi: For EndureAir Systems, an IIT Kanpur-incubated drone startup founded in 2019 by professor –student team, seed funding was important to add momentum for scaling up and expanding the product line-up. The startup said that it has raised around $1.68 million (Rs 13.5 crore) in seed funding in the round led by Jalaj Dani, co-promoter of Asian Paints which also saw participation from the founders of robotics and automation company Addverb Technologies.

The founder and director Abhishek, EndureAir commented, “The investment would be used to expand our product line-up to meet the demand for heavier payload capacity UAVs.”

The company was founded IIT Kanpur professors Abhishek and Mangal Kothari along with their students, Rama Krishna and Chirag Jain, with focus on high-tech dynamic aerial robotic solutions backed by extensive research. The startup provides solutions in border surveillance, logistics and medicine delivery, aerial mapping, crowd monitoring, providing situational awareness and so on. The drones produced by EndureAir can be further customised based on the end user requirement.

EndureAir has provided service to agencies such as Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), UP Police, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) over the years.

Co-founder and CEO Rama Krishna, EndureAir added, “This funding round will give an impetus to EndureAir’s momentum by scaling up its operations and innovating further by pushing the capabilities of the current designs.”

EndureAir was recently shortlisted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for promoting the manufacturing of drones and its components in the country. The company also provides its services to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Zen Technologies Ltd., Delhivery, amongst others.