ideaForge: From IIT Labs to Drone Dominance ✈️

The year was 2009 - and three engineers from IIT Bombay—Ankit Mehta, Rahul Singh, and Ashish Bhat—stood in a Delhi auditorium, surrounded by military brass. Their prototype drone, painstakingly assembled in a leaky Mumbai garage, was about to make its debut before the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Mid-demonstration, a gust from the air conditioner sent the quadcopter spiralling—directly into the teacup of DRDO chief Dr. VK Saraswat. Tea splashed everywhere. The room froze. Then, laughter. “This is the most exciting failure I’ve seen,” Saraswat said. “Fix the gyroscope, and we’ll fund you.”

That moment, captured in countless retellings, marked the beginning of ideaForge—a pioneer of the Indian drone industry with a 50% market share that has sustained over 15 years from that first launch!

Today, their drones surveil every active Indian border, their stock price swings like a battlefield trajectory, and their story is a masterclass in engineering grit, market euphoria, and the volatility of building hardware in a software-obsessed world.

From Garage to Government Contracts: The Early Years (2007–2016)

In 2007, the ideaForge founders—Ankit Mehta (mechanical), Rahul Singh (electronics), and Ashish Bhat (aerospace)—pooled Rs. 3.5 lakh from robotics competition prizes and odd jobs to start building drones.

Their lab was a borrowed garage in Navi Mumbai, where rain leaked through the tin roof and the only air conditioning was a creaky ceiling fan.

They lived on Rs. 50 vada pavs and slept in shifts, salvaging motors from Chor Bazaar toy helicopters and teaching robotics workshops to make ends meet - all leading up to their first prototype NETRA!

From a bird’s eye view, the next decade was nothing short of a resounding success!

After establishing itself as the foremost authority in defence-centric drones, they also had to focus on building a business as a defence tech powerhouse. Let’s take a look at the business model!

In a nutshell, ideaForge designed, built, and sold drones to big customers, wherein the price was anywhere between Rs. 25 lakh to Rs. 1 crore, mainly the Indian government and its security agencies. The company made most of its money by selling drones, but also earned from training pilots, servicing drones, and sometimes providing data or analytics. The general split of revenue was as follows:

• Defence & Security: The Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, and Central Armed Police Forces are major customers. In FY24, about 59% of their revenue came from defence, though this can fluctuate with government procurement cycles.

• Civil Sector: Mining, infrastructure, agriculture, and disaster management companies make up the rest. In 4QFY25, for example, 96% of their revenue came from civil customers due to a temporary dip in defence orders.

  
  

Coupled with the vision to stay indigenous in manufacturing, build their drones for reliability, and constantly innovate, this approach has helped them dominate the Indian drone market, secure large contracts, and stand out as a global leader in drone innovation.

All of this led up to the company finally making its debut in another battlefield - the stock market.

IPO Mania and the Harsh Reality Check (2017–2023)

The years leading up to the IPO were marked by explosive growth. Revenue jumped from Rs. 15 crore in FY20 to Rs. 186 crore (12x) in FY23, while gross margins rose from 42% to 58%. The order book hit Rs. 176 crore by the time of the IPO, and the company had logged over 450,000 missions with a 99.7% success rate.

Then came the IPO itself - oversubscribed by 106x, fuelled by the narrative and the potential of such a player in the market, with the stock having debuted at a 94% premium - for a moment, ideaForge was the darling of Dalal Street.

But the euphoria was short-lived. By September 2024, the order book had collapsed to Rs. 22 crore. Lithium prices doubled, sending battery costs soaring. Mutual funds dumped their stakes. The stock crashed 54% from its peak.

The Great Unravelling and Charting a Future Course

The post-IPO period was brutal. Revenue in 4QFY25 dropped 80% year-on-year to Rs. 20 crore, and EBITDA margins turned negative. The company’s stock price fell to Rs. 463 in May 2025, well below its IPO price of Rs. 672. Institutional investors fled, with mutual funds dumping 3.2% of their stake.

The most recent market movements for ideaForge changed the tide in perception, with the stock surging 40% in just three days amid hopes of increased demand following India-Pakistan hostilities.

ideaForge is not giving up any time soon:

• ideaForge being L1 (lowest bidder) in orders worth Rs. 400 crore, though finalisation has been delayed. It recently unveiled new drone categories, expanding its product portfolio and potentially opening new market opportunities.

• The company has pivoted to the civil sector, where its revenue share has grown to 21% thanks to contracts in mining and logistics.

• It has also signed US$ 2.1 million in export deals with the Middle East and is developing next-generation platforms like NETRA 5 (with AI-powered, GNSS-denied operations) and SWITCH V2 (with 120-minute endurance).

• The company is also launching India’s first drone-as-a-service (DaaS) platform, targeting Rs. 500 crore in annual recurring revenue by 2027, and Gross Margins of 70%!

  
  

The Indian drone market is projected to grow by 3x to Rs. 26,000 crore by 2030, with ideaForge targeting a 43% share of revenue from the defence segment and 12% of the civil market. The company is also exploring a NASDAQ listing and developing quantum radar and swarm drone technologies in partnership with TCS and the Indian Navy.