To execute large-scale synchronised flights involving over 1000 drones, India’s first drone swarm was developed as early as 2018. How has the journey been ever since? What is the future? Sarita Ahlawat from Botlab Dynamics, the firm behind this innovation, narrates their story to EFY’s Nitisha Dubey.
Q. What did the company focus on during its initial years?
A. In the beginning, our primary focus was on technology development rather than business. All three founders had technical backgrounds, so our focus was on learning, experimenting, and building various types of drones. Funding opportunities were limited, which meant the first few years were spent strengthening our technical capabilities. Through this experimentation, we realised the need for clear differentiation, which led us to focus on developing drone-swarm technology.
Q. What do you mean by drone swarm?
A. A swarm refers to multiple drones, more than three, that are connected and capable of communicating with each other as well as with a ground station. Tasks can be assigned to the swarm as a whole, and the drones coordinate among themselves to execute them. In 2018, we built India’s first drone swarm.
Q. What makes your swarm technology unique compared to others in the market?
A. In India, swarm technology as a product simply does not exist outside our company. Very few companies globally can fly 1000 or more drones together. Our uniqueness lies in building everything indigenously, hardware, communication protocols, ground station software, and synchronisation systems. Our global positioning systems (GPS) have an accuracy deviation of only about 10cm, which allows precise three-dimensional (3D) formations.
Q. How is AI used in your drones?
A. We do not use artificial intelligence (AI) for drone light shows. AI and computer vision are being developed for our defence drones, especially for autonomous decision-making. These systems allow drones to make real-time decisions, such as whether to proceed with a mission or abort it. This development is ongoing and will take about a year to fully mature.
Q. Do you manufacture everything in-house?
A. We design all critical electronics ourselves, including printed-circuit boards (PCBs). SMT is done through partners in Manesar and Noida, while final assembly, testing, and integration happen in-house at our Okhla facility. Some components, such as motors and batteries, still need to be sourced externally because their raw materials are not readily available in India.
Q. How do you ensure safety and reliability in large-scale drone operations?
A. We create a predefined digital flight volume using geofencing. Drones are programmed not to leave this horizontal and vertical space, ensuring the safety of people and property. All shows are pre-simulated, accounting for wind, velocity, and paths, so collisions are avoided well before the actual flight.
Q. What was your first major product success?
A. Our first product was swarm technology itself. We developed our own swarming algorithms and learned how to fly drones together reliably. By the end of 2021, we had built our own indigenous nano drone weighing less than 250 grams. Everything, from the drone body to electronics, was made in India. One key innovation was cost reduction. For example, GPS units that earlier cost us around ₹40,000 were reduced to under ₹10,000 when we made them in-house.
Q. How did drone light shows transform the company?
A. In 2021, we successfully flew 40 drones together, and a video of that demonstration went viral. This led to an invitation from the Ministry of Defence to fly 1000 drones at the Beating Retreat ceremony in 2022 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. That event brought us national recognition overnight. We became one of the few companies globally capable of flying 1000 drones simultaneously.
Q. How has your scale grown since then?
A. We flew 3500 drones in 2023, and in 2024, we set a world record by flying 5500 drones simultaneously. At one point, India was the only country with that capability. Although China later broke the record, we are now preparing to fly more than 12,000 drones in the near future.
Q. Why did you initially move from defence to drone light shows?
A. Defence is a very tough sector to crack, and the systems required are highly rugged and resource-intensive. By 2019, we had exhausted most of our personal savings for building technology. We needed a commercial application that could generate revenue while using our swarm capability. Drone light shows emerged as a perfect fit. They allowed us to monetise swarm technology while continuing to improve our hardware and software.
Q. What is your current global presence?
A. We now operate in more than 10 countries, including regions in Africa, the Middle East, and Sri Lanka. Drone shows remain a major part of our business. We are also one of the few drone light show companies in the world with seven Guinness World Records. BotLab made history in 2024 by setting five Guinness World Records during the Amaravati Drone Summit with a 5500-drone display. In 2025, we set another Guinness World Record at the Mysuru Dasara and Telangana Rising Summit 2025, bringing the total to seven.
Q. Have you returned to defence applications?
A. Yes. We have a dedicated defence vertical called Vayudh. Through a project funded by the Ministry of Defence under Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), we are developing small defence drones and are in the process of delivering around 300 drones to the Indian Navy. We are also developing larger drones with payloads up to 30kg. The subsidiary recently secured US$10 million in funding (April 2025) in a round led by Dharana Capital, with participation from prominent investors like Deepinder Goyal (founder of Zomato). This infusion will fuel research and development (R&D) of advanced surveillance drones and scale up manufacturing to meet the growing demand from India’s armed forces. Vayudh has already developed a nano-drone named ‘Atri’,designed for frontline reconnaissance, with support from the iDEX defence innovation programme. Such innovation aligns with the Indian government’s push for self-reliance in defence technology and provides homegrown alternatives to foreign unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Q. What is your business model and revenue source?
A. About 99% of our revenue currently comes from services, mainly drone light shows. We have completed over 300 shows so far. Recently, we began selling drones and drone components. For shows, we provide the drones along with our team, execute the event, and then bring everything back.
Q. Are there any challenges regarding imported components?
A. Imported drone components were not designed for Indian operating conditions. In regions like Pokhran, extreme heat, dust, and high winds led to frequent failures of flight controllers, GPS modules, and motor controllers. These were largely hobby-grade systems optimised for milder environments. The lack of environmental robustness, limited customisation, and high costs made them unsuitable for large-scale or mission-critical use, which pushed us to design and build our own electronics tailored to Indian conditions.
Q. What challenges have you faced as a startup?
A. Funding was the biggest hurdle in our early years, as hardware startups received very limited investor interest. As the company grew, the challenge shifted to talent and ecosystem constraints. India still lacks a strong pool of skilled hardware, radio frequency (RF), firmware, and systems engineers, as well as a mature infrastructure for prototyping, testing, and certification. Additionally, limited domestic chip design and manufacturing capabilities continue to impact development speed and scalability.
Q. What are your future plans?
A. We plan to scale both our defence and commercial drone businesses, expand manufacturing, and continue pushing global records in swarm technology while strengthening India’s indigenous drone ecosystem.
