Drone Technology: How InsideFPV is Scaling Hardware Entrepreneurship in India
Tejas Parekh et al.
What the paper says
InsideFPV Ventures Pvt. Ltd. was established in 2020 by three second-year engineering students at VIT Vellore with an initial capital of ₹5000. This case study examines hardware entrepreneurship in India’s nascent drone industry. Through its ‘Plug-and-Fly’ product design philosophy, the company addressed critical market failures, including high entry-level costs (₹10,000+), lengthy two-hour assembly processes, and product fragility. By capitalizing on regulatory shifts such as the 2022 import ban on foreign drones and the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, InsideFPV evolved from consumer hobbyist products like the BIR V2 (priced at ₹2800) to defence-grade surveillance systems, ultimately securing a landmark international defence contract worth ₹50 crore with Israel-based UAV Dynamix. By 2025, the company aimed to achieve ₹100 crore in annual revenue, with defence contributing 50%, agriculture 30%, and consumer business 20%. The case illustrates strategic choices relating to vertical integration, multi-segment positioning, and international expansion and raises the key question of whether a bootstrapped hardware startup can sustain its agile, consumer-centric DNA while scaling into high-stakes defence contracts in a complex geopolitical environment.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.