Classroom to battlefield: Kalam Labs takes a defencetech pivot to the stratosphere
This Lucknow-based startup, which began as an edtech platform, has successfully pivoted into a defencetech company building UAVs that fly to an unprecedented 100,000 feet.
In the dorm rooms of BITS Pilani, where startups like Pixxel took flight, Ahmad Faraaz, Sashakt Tripathi, and Harshit Awasthi founded Kalam Labs in 2018. What began as a gamified edtech platform teaching children about space has now evolved into a deeptech enterprise redefining India’s defence capabilities.
“We had a multiplayer game like a metaverse of the solar system, where kids joined as gaming characters to join ‘space instructors’ on a tour of the universe and learn space facts along the way,” recalls Faraaz.
All looked well for the trio. The startup generated about Rs 2 crore in revenue in the first four months, was backed by Y Combinator and raised $2 million in funding. Then, everything changed. From a B2B SaaS platform, the startup pivoted to a drone manufacturing spacetech company. The founder says the trio realised their ambitions were beyond just space education; they wanted to do their own space mission.
“Our transition was in doing the edge of space mission with Hritik Roshan (as part of promotions for his film Fighter) on January 26, 2024, where we unfurled the Indian flag in space. That made it clear to us that we wanted to do more than educate. We wanted to build tech that was impactful and was deeply unique,” he tells YourStory.
Lucknow-based Kalam Labs, with its 15-member team, now builds drones specifically for the stratosphere (33,000 to 1,64,000 feet), well above conventional drones for the troposphere or rockets for outer space. The startup has its own manufacturing and testing facility in its HQ as well.
“We have been recognised by the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics as achieving the world's highest UAV flight,” he says. The startup flew its UAV at a height of 9790 meters above sea level.
From edtech to stratospheric UAVs
The first eureka moment for the founders was when Awasthi was telling Faraaz about the ‘edge of space’—more officially recognised as the Kármán line. This is a line 100 km above sea level, recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, where the atmosphere thins to a point where an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) would need orbital velocity to stay afloat rather than relying on wings.
“It’s a place where we arrive at the upper reaches of the gravitational pull. Harshit gave us the insight that the easiest and cheapest way to reach the edge of space is not using a rocket but via a balloon,” he says.
The spacetech startup’s first mission was with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in March 2025. Faraaz says that the IMD was regularly deploying balloons to take its modules to the upper regions of the atmosphere for weather monitoring.
“They were losing their weather modules with every launch because a balloon can’t be brought down, right? We assisted them by building our UAV that was attached to the balloon along with the weather module. Once it reached the required altitude of 30,000 meters and the balloon detached itself, the module recorded the data on our UAV, which glided back to Earth after the mission was accomplished,” he explains.
That success attracted attention from the Indian Army as the spacetech startup—that also doubles as a stratospheric aerial robotics lab—managed to deploy a UAV at 30,000 meters, which is twice the maximum height of a Rafale fighter jet, one of the world’s most advanced multirole jets.
“The Army approached us for collaboration on a mission where they would deploy UAVs through balloons for surveillance and kamikaze missions,” he says.
A new frontier in aerial warfare
Modern conflicts – from the Russia-Ukraine war to Operation Sindoor – have made UAVs a cornerstone of warfare. Yet, conventional drones flying at 15,000 feet are vulnerable to anti-drone systems and GPS jammers.
“Our drones fly in the stratosphere at about 100,000 feet,” Faraaz explains. “At that height, they’re immune to jamming, interception, or terrain interference.”
Kalam Labs’ drones are currently deployed at Pokhran (India’s nuclear test site) and along the Indo-China Line of Control. Its key models include the Stratospheric ISR UAV for surveillance, the Stratospheric Retrievable Radiosonde for weather monitoring, and the Stratospheric Kamikaze UAV Swarmcurrently in final testing.
India’s stratospheric advantage
The co-founder says that Kalam Labs’ stratospheric nature allows its UAVs to escape enemy territory, perform surveillance anywhere, and perform their tasks without much worry, while costing 1/10th of what their competitors charge.
The startup is also developing a supersonic ramjet-based (a type of engine) UAV capable of speeds up to Mach 2.5 (3000 km/h), which is expected to be completed in the next 18 months.
The company is further working on manoeuvrable airships for dynamic surveillance and real-time mapping of terrains. Faraaz says his startup is in discussions with the Indian Navy for potential collaboration.
Building India’s Lockheed Martin
Kalam Labs has so far raised about $2 million, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed, believes Kalam Labs’ co-founders are “deeply first-principle thinkers” who have successfully made “the most unexpected transition (pivot)”.
The startup plans to raise $3-5 million in a Series A round by the end of 2025 to expand its R&D efforts. Competing with startups like Mumbai-based iDeaForge and Chennai-based Garuda Aerospace, Faraaz believes Kalam Labs’ “near-space UAVs” give it a decisive edge.
With Rs 1 crore in revenue from nano UAV sales and military contracts expected to kick in soon, Faraaz is optimistic.
“India’s defence tech ecosystem is at a very healthy stage right now. All of us need to stay in the market and provide our USP to the armed forces. We at Kalam Labs will continue to innovate and try to stay ahead of the mark,” he says.