Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor pick up minority stakes in IPO-bound DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations

Bollywood celebrities Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, and market veteran Shankar Sharma, among others, have picked up minority stakes in DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations in the Pre-IPO round.  The company recently filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for SME IPO.

Other than Sharma and the Bollywood actors, Mangina Srinivas Rao (previously associated with ITC e-Chaupal and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, India) also took a stake in the company, a company press release suggested.

The Pune-headquartered company is India’s first integrated drone ecosystem start-up to seek a listing on BSE SME Exchange.

“Being a 40-plus people team, we are now embarking on a 2.0 vision of growth and value creation – with our listing plans and investment plans fortified. We are proud to be the first drone start-up in India to aim for listing and take the drone ecosystem in the country to the next level in the future,” said Prateek Srivastava, Founder & Managing Director at DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations.

A few angel investors, including Jay Vishwanathan, VC Kartik and Samit Bhartia, have also invested in the company.  Other investors include Harshal Morde, an angel investor in media and entertainment-focused start-ups, and Ashish Nanda, Founder & Managing Director of Innovations Group, a UAE-based business conglomerate.

Recently, DroneAcharya Aerial announced its plans to acquire 100-plus new drones as a part of its expansion plan. The company plans to train 500 plus pilots and 25 instructors annually starting in 2023.

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