Surat's InsideFPV builds India's own combat drones and delivered 100 to the Army in 60 days
InsideFPV makes combat-ready FPV and kamikaze drones designed for minus-35-degree borders, and delivered 100 to the Indian Army in 60 days.
The 2020 Galwan clash exposed how much of India's frontline drone capability was imported, and how little of it was built for the country's borders. InsideFPV was founded in Surat that same year to address that gap, building indigenous first-person-view, or FPV, drones for the Indian armed forces.
The company was started by Arth Chowdhary, Deyvant Bhardwaj and Oshi Kumari, who set out to build combat-ready drones for real conditions rather than controlled test environments. It began with a broader consumer and education play, including drone labs and pilot training, before moving defence to the front of the queue.
The pitch was affordability and reliability: systems soldiers could depend on, at a fraction of the cost of imported equivalents. The founders started the company in 2020, and it has since expanded from a small workshop into a defence drone supplier.
Drones built for a minus-35-degree border
InsideFPV's core products are tactical drones for the military: FPV kamikaze drones, interceptors, and systems that keep working even when GPS is jammed. The kamikaze drones are one-time-use, exceed 250 km/h, and are built for India's harshest deployment conditions.
The interceptors and GPS-denied systems address a different battlefield need, staying operational when an enemy is jamming signals or spoofing navigation. “Our Kamikaze and FPV systems were engineered specifically for India's harshest deployment environments, functioning reliably in temperatures dropping to -35 degrees Celsius,” says Arth Chowdhary, the CEO.
The company describes itself as India's first plug-and-fly FPV drone maker, and much of its engineering focuses on making the drones easy to deploy in field conditions, so that a soldier can fly one with minimal training. Reliability in bad conditions is the harder part of the problem, and the one InsideFPV leans on to differentiate from cheaper imports.
That work also feeds a second line of business: drone labs and training kits, including a patented education drone, that put hands-on hardware into schools across the country.
From hundreds of drones to thousands
InsideFPV sells mainly to the Indian armed forces, and its traction has come fast. In April 2026, it executed a Rs 10 crore Ministry of Defence contract in two months, supplying FPV drones and training more than 300 personnel. Soon after, it delivered 100 indigenous kamikaze drones to the Indian Army within 60 days.
It has also won the Indian Army's Him Dron-a-thon, a high-altitude drone competition held at around 17,000 feet in Ladakh. It has also signed an agreement with an Israel-based drone firm. The startup says it has been profitable since its first year.
The company has drawn notice beyond defence, too. Its founder appeared on Shark Tank India and on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia list. Furthermore, it has hosted Gujarat's chief minister and shown its drones to the Vice Chief of the Army Staff.
The attention rides a broader shift, as the government pushes to source drones indigenously and buyers move away from imported systems.
To keep up with demand, InsideFPV is setting up a 20,000 sq ft facility to move from making hundreds of drones to thousands. Its latest raise was a Rs 6 crore pre-Series A round led by GVFL in January 2026, on top of earlier backing from Mumbai Angels, Inflection Point Ventures, Soonicorn Ventures and DLabs.
Over the next few years, the founders want InsideFPV to become a globally recognised Indian defence-drone maker, serving both domestic forces and allied nations.
(This story has been researched and compiled using publicly available information.)