The Indian technology services and consulting corporation Infosys continues its venture in startups with its latest investment in ideaForge, a company that pioneers in the manufacture of unmanned aerial vehicle or drones.
Although those private organizations and individuals in India are prohibited from flying drones, idea Forge's drones have been used by the Indian armed forces. The devices have autonomous operation, failsafe technology and high endurance. It is also capable of generating high resolution imagery and image intelligence with live feed.
"ideaForge's UAVs have been widely deployed by the Indian armed forces for surveillance, crowd monitoring, and rescue operations, and offer a compelling solution for commercial applications in verticals such as energy, utilities, telecom, and agriculture," Infosys said.
Aside from aiding the military, Infosys Executive Vice President and Global Head of Corporate Development and Ventures Ritika Suri said that the UAVs also has significant potential for industrial use.
"We are looking forward to working with ideaForge and bringing their technology, expertise, and solutions to our clients to unlock new business insights from operational data that has previously been difficult to obtain," she said.
Infosys has made the investment of an undisclosed amount from its $500 million Innovation fund launched in 2015. However, the investment will still go through regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. The ideaForge investment is the eleventh venture Infosys has made out of its fund.
The Innovation Fund was set up by the company in 2013 to provide financing to startups and new technologies like artificial intelligence.
"We are very excited to have Infosys as an investor and a partner for exploring UAV services and solutions for global customers. This partnership will play an important role in our industrial expansion to address a wide variety of data acquisition and analysis needs," shared Ankit Mehta, ideaForge co-founder and CEO.
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