Zoho Corp invests in drone startup Yali Aerospace

SaaS unicorn Zoho Corporation, known for its suite of business software solutions, has made an investment in Yali Aerospace, an aviation and aerospace component manufacturing firm. 

The Thanjavur-based firm specialises in providing drone solutions for medical, surveillance, and logistics globally. Some of its applications include solutions for precision agriculture, infrastructure inspection, and disaster response. 

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, announced the funding on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

Founded by Dinesh Baluraj and Anugraha Ganeshan in 2022, Yali Aerospace has developed the Yali Network Bridge, which claims to deliver medical supplies in under 20 minutes across India. The deployment of this drone-based delivery network in public and private hospitals aims to enable seamless distribution of vital medical resources, improving healthcare outcomes.

Yali Aerospace also offers SkyBase (YNB), a drone hub that serves as a delivery network linking hospitals for transporting organs, medical supplies, and AEDs between locations. Additionally, the company's ground control station software (YMC) allows a single pilot to remotely control and monitor multiple drones simultaneously from a distance. 

The company, however, declined to comment on the funding.

According to the Indian Commercial Drone Market report, India's commercial drone market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4% during the period of 2020 to 2026.