Shankar Sharma-backed firm DroneAcharya Aerial’s IPO opening on 13 December

Pune-headquartered DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations (Droneacharya AI), the first drone start-up company in the country on Tuesday announced its initial public offering will open on December 13, 2022, and close on December 15, 2022.

The company will offer 62.90 lakh shares at the price band of ₹52-54 per share. Of the 62.90 shares offered, 8.98 lakh shares are reserved for HNI's, 11.94 lakh shares are reserved for QIB's and 20.92 lakh shares will be offered to retail investors.

The company said that the fresh funds raised will be utilised to purchase and manufacture drones, sensors and processing infrastructure. Further, DroneAcharya Aerial plans to open 12 new training centres by March 2023.

In the pre-IPO funding, marque investors led by Shankar Sharma and others have picked a minority stake in the company. Other key investors in the startup include Harshal Mode, an angel investor in media and entertainment-focused startups, and Ashish Nanda, founder and managing director of Innovations Group, a UAE-based business conglomerate.

"Further, drones are being widely used in the country across industries for surveys, deliveries and surveillance, and this segment is expected to perform strongly in the coming years. We see a great value creation as the company has within a very short span been able to scale up its operations and has dynamic plans ahead," said Shankar Sharma

Nikhil Chawla and Vivek Chandaria promoted Switzerland-based Wellstone Capital have also picked up a stake in the company in the Pre-IPO round of funding.

A few angel investors, including Jay Vishwanathan, VC Kartik and Samit Bhartia, have also invested in the company.

The company reported a total revenue of ₹308.96 lakhs and a net profit of ₹72.06 lakhs, in the June quarter of the current financial year.