By the end of 2025, defence tech was no longer a fringe sector. The events of Operation Sindoor thrust the spotlight on Indian drones, anti-drone defence tech and AI-enabled smart weapons and defence systems.

And 2025 also highlighted India’s dependency on defence exports. Operation Sindoor, exposed a harsh reality: India needs indigenous defence tech, especially since the focus was squarely on sovereign tech all throughout the year.

“Before Op Sindoor, there was some movement toward improving tech sovereignty, particularly around cybersecurity, but it was fairly scattered and patchy. Today, the focus has clearly shifted toward indigenisation and tech sovereignty, especially after the challenges that emerged in the past six months,” says Sai Pattabiram, founder of Zuppa, a Chennai-based dronetech startup.

What followed was a surge in government demand for homegrown drone startups, along with growing interest from Indian VC firms. As per Inc42 data, of the approximately $78 Mn raised by defence tech startups over the last 10 years, $68 Mn was raised in 2025 alone.

This accounted for about 13% of the total $533 Mn funding raised by all deeptech startups in India.

Pertinent to note that the above dataset includes only defence tech startups, and does not account for the entire drone tech ecosystem. That is a much broader sector spanning areas such as agriculture, healthcare, construction, and logistics, making it difficult to ascertain how much of the drone ecosystem caters to defence tech alone.

Still, dronetech accounts for a large part of the defence tech ecosystem. Some of the notable startups operating in the sector include Raphe mPhibr, IG Defence, ideaForge, Garuda Aerospace, among others. While a large portion of the overall capital deployed in the segment is concentrated towards the........

© Inc42