Homegrown drone manufacturer AITMC Ventures has filed its updated draft red herring prospectus (UDRHP) with SEBI for an initial public offering (IPO), with the maiden issue comprising entirely of a fresh issue of up to 3.5 crore shares and no offer-for-sale component.
The size of the IPO will be finalised upon determination of the issue price.
Since AITMC’s proposed IPO does not have an OFS component, existing investors, promoters Deep Sihag Sisai and Preet Sandhuu and early-stage backers will not sell or dilute their stake in the company during the initial share sale.
The AIMTC group houses the following entities:
- Starup Stairs Private Limited
- SPH Aviation Private Limited
- GEG Thrive To Learn Private Limited
- Farmer’s City Producer Company Limited
- Uavies Evolution Private Limited
- Farmers City International Private Limited
What is AIMTC? Founded in 2016, AITMC initially provided vocational training and skill development under various government-sponsored schemes. Later, it strategically expanded into the drone ecosystem, specifically into drone pilot training, drone services delivery (DaaS) on pilot basis, and indigenous drone manufacturing and assembling.
As part of its drone manufacturing operations, the company obtained DGCA certification for its flagship model, named “VIRAJ”, a multi-purpose agricultural drone. AITMC has manufactured and deployed 162 units of the VIRAJ drones and sold 28 other drones as of March 31, 2026.
Apart from that, AITMC has also submitted applications with DGCA for drones built for solar panel cleaning, training, firefighting, logistics, and surveillance.
Most recently, the drone tech startup entered the defence segment and bagged orders from government-backed organisations, Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL), for drones targeted at enterprises applications.
To align with regulatory and operational requirements specific to the defence sector, AITMC said it is restructuring its business “to clearly delineate our defence and non-defence manufacturing activities”.
“As part of this process, we plan to retain our existing Gurugram Facility, Haryana for defence-related drone production, while relocating commercial and non-defence drone manufacturing to our upcoming facility in the Proposed Future Tech Park in Hisar, Haryana,” AITMC said in its IPO prospectus.
In an effort to expand its DaaS ecosystem, the company has launched an online drone marketplace called “Drone Planet”. Offerings include drone and drone component listings, drone training courses and training institutes, drone-based services. It allows manufacturers and service providers to register and offer their products and services through the platform.
In January last year, its listed peer DroneAcharya signed a term sheet with AVPL International, operated by AITMC, for a “strategic merger”. The joint venture would have spawned AVPL DroneAcharya. However, the deal never materialised.
Second stab at an IPO: This is AITMC’s second attempt at a public listing. The company first filed its DRHP in December 2023 to list on NSE Emerge, but the plan did not materialise.
After restructuring and scaling up, the company’s board approved its proposal to increase the fresh issue size of its IPO from Rs 125 crore to Rs 200 crore in July 2025.
Consequently, AITMC confidentially filed for an IPO and SEBI cleared the decks for its public listing by issuing an observation letter in January this year.
In SEBI parlance, the issuance of observations on the preliminary papers means the company is allowed to launch its IPO within one year from the receipt of the observation letter, while a company that files its DRHP through the confidential route gets 18 months to launch the IPO.
Where will the IPO proceeds go? The net proceeds will be deployed across five focus areas:
- Rs 69.7 crore on Future Tech Park in Gurugram for drone production, drone component production, training, and reasearch and development (R&D).
- Rs 40.5 crore to strengthen infrastructure facilities at 17 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and three polytechnic colleges in Uttar Pradesh under the World Incubation and Skill Hubs initiative (WISH).
- Rs 14.5 crore to upgrade 50 Global Incubation and Skill Hubs in 50 AICTE-approved colleges.
- Rs 10.4 crore to set up and R&D laboratories at IIT Ropar, IIT Kanpur and the company’s drone manufacturing Gurugram facility.
- Rs 20 crore towards repaying or pre-paying part of the loans taken by AITMC.
How AITMC makes money: AITMC’s drone business model is designed around three core functions: skill development and training, delivery of drone-based services (currently being run on pilot basis), and the manufacturing and assembling of drones.
The company generates revenue primarily from drone sales, drone operator entrepreneurship under its DaaS model, and training fees from drone-related skill programs. Sales are almost entirely business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G).
The vocational education and skill development vertical accounted for 96.8% of its operating revenue in FY26, compared with 88.1% in FY25 and 99.2% in FY24.
Financial snapshot: For the year ended March 31, 2026, AITMC reported revenue from operations of Rs 106.8 crore, up 22% from Rs 87.5 crore in FY25.
However, the growth came at the cost of its bottom line. Net profit fell nearly 17% to Rs 13.4 crore in FY26 from Rs 16.1 crore in FY25.
The rise in expenditure outpaced revenue growth. Total expenses surged about 37% to Rs 89.5 crore from Rs 65.2 crore a year earlier.
This is not a like-for-like comparison. FY26 figures are standalone, while FY25 numbers are consolidated, as AITMC’s erstwhile subsidiaries, SPH Aviation and Farmers City International, ceased to be subsidiaries during the year under review.
- Cost of services: Declined 14% to Rs 27.7 crore, compared with Rs 32.2 crore in FY25.
- Purchase of stock-in-trade: Stood at Rs 27.2 crore. This expense bucket did not exist in FY25.
- Other expenses: Rose 27% to Rs 12.7 crore from Rs 10 crore in the previous fiscal.
India’s broader drone tech ecosystem: AITMC’s renewed listing push comes amid a busy year for India’s drone industry. In March, its listed peer ideaForge Technology secured an order to deploy its unmanned aerial systems for school security in the US. The company received a purchase order from the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) Police Department in Texas to supply integrated autonomous drones for aerial monitoring across 20–25 schools.
Recently, ideaForge also claimed its fleet has crossed 1 million successful flights, and it has secured DGCA type certification for its SWITCH UAV for civil and paramilitary use.
Smaller rival DroneAcharya announced last month it had bagged an Indian Army order for First Person View drones worth Rs 7.12 crore.
Beyond defence-focused players, logistics startup Airbound closed a $37 million Series A funding round in August, signing a drone delivery agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government for 10,000 daily flights across a three-city network.
Bengaluru-based SUIND raised Rs 20.5 crore in July 2026 to scale its agricultural drone Bumblebee and develop an autonomous drone, WASP.
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