Zoho's Sridhar Vembu Invests In Tamil Nadu-based Drone Startup Run By Netherlands-return Couple

Sridhar Vembu, the CEO of Zoho, on Tuesday announced an investment in a drone startup. The Thanjavur-based Yali Aerospace is engaged in delivering easy-to-use drone technology for civil and military use purposes.

However, Vembu didn’t disclose the amount or any other details of the investment.

“We are happy to announce our investment in Yali Aerospace, a drone startup based in Thanjavur led by the husband and wife team of Dinesh Baluraj and Anugraha. They returned from the Netherlands to their hometown of Thanjavur to start this,” Vembu wrote on social media platform X.

Yali promises to deliver medical commodities to any destination in India in less than 20 minutes through the Yali Network Bridge.

“They have built a fixed-wing drone with vertical take-off and landing, solving the problem of delivering medicines and organs to remote hospitals, up to a range of 150 km, with a payload of up to 7 kg, max speed of 155 km/hr,” Vembu added.

Vembu is the founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation, the Indian multinational tech company behind the popular cloud-based software suite. He founded Zoho (initially called AdventNet) in 1996, along with his brothers.

The investment in the drone startup comes at a time when India is actively promoting the technology for transforming different sectors, like agriculture, healthcare and the military.

Bharat Drone Shakti 2023, a first-of-its-kind drone exhibition cum display was held last year. It was jointly organised by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Drone Federation of India (DFI). The two-day event featured over 75 drone start-ups from across the country.

By showcasing their capabilities through a series of aerial & statics demonstrations, the IAF and DFI sought to bolster the government’s initiative to make India a major drone hub by 2030.

The government is striving to boost the demand for cutting-edge drone technology and services in a three-pronged approach. Effective policy is the new Drone Rules, 2021; providing incentives in the form of PLI for Drones and Drone Components; And creating indigenous demand wherein 12 Ministries of the central government have been given the task to take it forward.