IDEAFORGE, THE BIGGEST DRONE MANUFACTURER IN INDIA, SUBMITS A RS. 750 CRORE IPO

IdeaForge Technologies, a drone manufacturer based in Mumbai, has registered for an initial public offering with market regulator SEBI with a goal of raising Rs. 750 cr approximately. Through secondary and primary share sales, about 25% of the company stake will be made available to the public.

The additional issue of Rs 300 crore and the Offer for Sale of 4.87 lakh equity shares make up the public offering, which has a face value of Rs 10 per equity share. The offer also includes eligible employees to reserve a subscription to the IPO.

The company would be the first drone manufacturer to ever list on the main board of the local bourses. Investors in the OFS include promoter group entities, Qualcomm, and venture capital firms. Investors currently own roughly 70% of IdeaForge Technologies, with promoters owning the remaining 30%.

Customers who need apps for surveillance, mapping, and surveying are IdeaForge's main target market. Together with other civil clients, it has as clients the military forces, the central armed police, state police agencies, disaster management forces, and forest departments.

According to research released by Drone Industry Insights in December 2022, it is one of the first few Indian businesses to enter the UAV market and is now ranked 7th globally in the dual-use category, which includes both civil and defense applications.

Some of the companies that support IdeaForge include Qualcomm, Infosys, and Florintree Capital Partners, which Mathew Cyriac, a former executive at Blackstone, co-founded. The amount of the offer that can be allocated to qualified institutional buyers must be at least 75%, the amount that can be allocated to non-institutional investors must not exceed 15%, and the amount that can be allocated to retail individual bidders must not exceed 10%.

The company may think about issuing specified securities totalling up to Rs. 60 crores in collaboration with the issue's lead bankers. The size of the new issue will be reduced if such a placement is effective.

Ankit Mehta, Ashish Bhat, Rahul Singh, Vipul Joshi, and Amardeep Singh, alumni of IIT Bombay, founded IdeaForge in 2007. The company states to have 15 years of R&D experience and more than 20 patents. The Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship ("SINE"), IIT Bombay, and CIIE Initiatives, IIM Ahmedabad, respectively, served as the company's initial incubators.  It has submitted 62 patent applications, of which 34 were submitted abroad and 28 were submitted in India. As stated in the DRHP, as of December 31, 2022, its client had flown over 300,000 times using its UAVs.

The Mumbai-based startup, whose drones are typically launched every five minutes for surveillance and mapping, had the largest operational deployment of indigenous UAVs throughout India. There are no recognized businesses that specialize in the production of drones. In addition to producing drones, ideaForge also provides after-sales support for its clients and is working to establish uAVs as an on-demand service.

The operating revenue of the drone maker climbed at a CAGR of 237.48% over the previous three fiscal years. The company made a profit of Rs. 44.01 Cr. in FY22 after posting a loss in FY21. Revenue from operations for the six months ending September 30, 2022, was Rs. 139.55 crore, while profit after tax was Rs. 45.21 crore.

The value of the global drone market is predicted to reach $21.1 billion (Rs. 1.74 trillion), according to 1Lattice Research, in 2022. With a CAGR of 19%, the sector experienced strong growth between 2018 and 2022. With a CAGR of 20%, it is anticipated to expand even faster and reach a projected US$51.4 billion (Rs. 4.25 trillion) in 2027.