Industrial drones startup AUS raises funding from 500 Startups

AUS develops its own commercial grade drones for the mining, urban planning, roads, and railway sectors

Bangalore-based drone startup Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS) has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding round from growx ventures, 500 Startups, and BellWether Advisors.

Existing investors StartupXseed, 3ONE4 Capital, and Sanjay Jesrani have also contributed to this round.

The proceeds from the round shall be used for expanding the business reach and furthering R&D.

“The new funding round shall help us penetrate deeper in our existing market, expand to some tough-to-crack and large potential applications in the near future, and establish a roadmap for applications in logistics and urban mobility market, which is our ultimate long-term goal. AUS has received a great response from the Indian market in a very short span, and is confident of becoming the dominant player in the commercial drone market in India, and presence in a couple of more countries, by 2019,” said Vipul Singh, CEO of AUS.

Founded in 2013 by Singh, Suhas Banshiwala, and Yeshwanth Reddy, AUS provides drone-based land surveying solutions.

The startup was initially incubated at the SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre (SIIC) at IIT-Kanpur, where a common interest in aero-modeling and robotics brought the AUS team together. AUS currently develops its own commercial grade drones and introduced first indigenous PPK enabled drone- INSIGHT-PPK in India which it claims is 3x more accurate and 2x faster than most commonly used solutions available in the market.

“Drones have the ability to dramatically reshape the way enterprises work, and bring about significant gains in productivity and efficiency, across a wide variety of sectors. We believe AUS will be at the forefront of creating this impact and are delighted to join them on this journey,” said Sheetal Bahl, MD, growx ventures.

AUS currently provides solutions to the mining, urban planning, roads, and railway sectors with 3D mapping and surveying solutions. Drones are a new trend and sweeping the GIS market in India. Many government and private organisations now have special programs to integrate drones-based solutions with their conventional GIS requirements.

“Drones have the potential to transform the world for the better. AUS is working on several exciting applications for drones and they’re impacting industries in amazing ways by making them smarter and more efficient; we are very excited to be a part of their journey,” said Shalini Prakash, Venture Partner, 500 Startups India.