Universities File 46% of India's Drone Patent Applications. Indian Companies File 13%.

ideaForge, the Mumbai drone maker, announced two new versions of its ZOLT tactical drone on 6 October 2026. ZOLT Hybrid pairs an engine with a battery for more than six hours in the air and a line-of-sight link of up to 100 km; ZOLT UCAV is a battery-powered combat variant. Janes called it the company's entry into long-range surveillance and armed drones, and reported that ideaForge holds several Indian Army contracts for ZOLT, the largest a ₹75 crore order announced in November 2025.

We set the launch against our own data on India's drone field: 1,909 drone and UAV companies on our list, 2,862 drone patent applications in our index, and 19 private rounds on our record since January 2025. Three findings stand out. Universities and colleges file 46% of the drone patent applications we hold, Indian companies 13%. Drone companies are a third as likely as other deep-tech companies to be matched to any patent application. And one round, Raphe mPhibr's $100 million, is more than half of the private money.

1,909 companies, most founded since 2021

Drone and UAV companies make up 6.6% of the 28,866 deep-tech companies on our list (our data, 17 October 2026). They are young. Of the 1,397 with an incorporation date, 1,074 (77%) were incorporated in 2021 or later, and 2025 was the busiest single year, with 311.

Maharashtra has the most, 274, followed by Karnataka with 231 and Tamil Nadu with 218. By city, Bengaluru leads with 190, then Hyderabad with 88 (plus 35 in neighbouring Ranga Reddy district), Pune with 86 and Chennai with 84. Against each state's deep-tech base, drones weigh most in Andhra Pradesh, where they are 10.1% of the deep-tech companies on our list, and Madhya Pradesh, at 9.7%. In Maharashtra and Karnataka the share is 5.6% and 5.5%.

Who files drone patent applications

Our index holds 2,862 Indian patent applications on drones and UAVs. Indian universities, colleges and institutes filed 1,305 of them (46%), and individuals 794 (28%). Indian companies filed 368 (13%) and foreign applicants 344 (12%). Government bodies filed five.

The largest single filers are private universities. Chandigarh University has 66 drone applications in our index and Lovely Professional University 55; Vellore Institute of Technology's Chennai and Vellore campuses have 35 and 28. The largest company filer is Greinventek, with 48 applications for agricultural spraying UAVs, followed by ideaForge with 20 and Sooryauday Aerial Vehicles with 19, all of the latter filed since August 2025. Among foreign filers, Wing Aviation, the Alphabet drone delivery company, leads with 43, then Qualcomm with 35 and Xiaomi with 23. So far 398 of the 2,862 applications (14%) have been granted.

Filings rose 2.6 times from 2022 to 2025

Within the years our index covers best, filings rose every year: 306 drone applications filed in 2022, 408 in 2023, 568 in 2024 and 807 in 2025. Another 516 filed in 2026 are already in the index, and that count will grow as applications are published, usually 18 months after filing.

The foreign share fell over the same years, from 19% of 2022 filings to 8% in 2025. Foreign filing held at 49 to 65 applications a year; the growth was domestic, and most of it came from universities and individuals.

Drone companies rarely show up in the patent record

Of the 1,909 drone and UAV companies on our list, 108 (5.7%) are matched to at least one patent application in our index, and 70 are matched to a drone application in particular. Across all deep-tech companies on our list the rate is 16.7%. Seen from the other side, the 187 drone applications matched to drone companies are 6.5% of the drone applications we hold.

ideaForge is matched to 35 patent applications in our index, 20 of them on drones, the most of any drone company on our list. Sooryauday Aerial Vehicles follows with 19 drone applications, Aarav Unmanned Systems with 13, Droame with 12 and Raphe mPhibr with 10. Our reading is that much of India's drone industry assembles and integrates to a buyer's specification, where an Army trial counts for more than a filing, while the patent record is being filled by campuses.

Private money: one round is more than half

Since January 2025 we have 19 private rounds on our record for drone and UAV companies on our list, compiled from public reports, worth about ₹1,555 crore ($187 million) in all. Raphe mPhibr's $100 million round, led by General Catalyst in June 2025, is 53% of that. Airbound's $37 million Series A in August 2026, led by Greenoaks, is another 20%. The median round is $2.4 million, about ₹20 crore; six rounds were $5 million or more and twelve were under $3.1 million.

ideaForge is not in this count. It is a listed company, and a stock market listing is not a private round.

Defence or farms: the descriptions do not split cleanly

We tried to divide the 1,909 companies into defence-oriented firms and agriculture or survey firms using their descriptions. It does not divide cleanly. 411 describe only defence uses and 590 only agriculture, survey or inspection; 215 describe both and 693 neither, ideaForge among them. Within the two clean groups, 6.3% of the defence-only companies and 5.1% of the agriculture and survey companies are matched to a patent application, too close to call a difference. We do not compare their funding on this basis.

What to watch

Deliveries are the next test of the Army's drone buying. NewsD Defence reported on 15 October that Solar Defence and Aerospace had completed delivery of 450 Nagastra-1R loitering munitions under a ₹158 crore emergency order placed in June 2025. A high-altitude ZOLT Hybrid is due next, according to both Janes and The Week.

On the supply side, DheyaTech raised ₹43 crore on 18 September 2026, led by Avaana Capital, to expand production of small gas turbine engines of 20 to 400 kgf thrust; our profile tags it for UAV propulsion. Whether component makers like it start to appear in the patent record will say more about the depth of India's drone field than any single launch.

How we counted

Drone and UAV companies are deep-tech companies on our list (yes or maybe verdict, not merged, not closed) whose name, tags or description mention drones or UAVs and whose technology area, name or leading tags say so. We left out space companies and 202 firms registered under Startup India's drones category with no drone evidence in their profile. States and cities are registered addresses.

Drone patent applications are those whose title names a drone, UAV, unmanned aircraft or multirotor, or which our technology tagging places in a drone sub-theme. Filer type comes from the applicant record; foreign means a non-Indian applicant country. Patent counts carry a scope caveat: our index concentrates on applications filed from 2022 onward, so earlier years are undercounted. Company matches are name matches to applicants, not ownership.

Rounds are verified rounds on our record from public reports dated 1 January 2025 to 17 October 2026, excluding grants, RDI Fund money and our cumulative estimates of company totals, with duplicate reports of one round counted once. Rupee amounts are converted at ₹83 to the dollar.

In our data

Sources

• Janes: ideaForge launches hybrid and UCAV variants of Zolt UAV (7 October 2026) ↗
• The Week: ideaForge unveils ZOLT UCAV, ZOLT Hybrid. What do these drones bring to the battlefield? (7 October 2026) ↗
• NewsD Defence: Solar Defence delivers 450 Nagastra-1R drones to Indian Army under ₹158 crore deal (15 October 2026) ↗
• VIE Stories: DheyaTech raises ₹43 crore in funding led by Avaana Capital (18 September 2026) ↗
• Outlook Business: Raphe mPhibr bags $100 Mn in India's biggest defence-tech start-up funding round (26 June 2025) ↗
• Indian Startup News: Aerospace startup Airbound raises $37 million (25 August 2026) ↗