Drone developer ideaForge posted Rs 1.2 crore in profit after tax (PAT) in Q1 FY25, 94% down from Rs 18.9 crore in Q1 FY24.
The PAT dropped by 87% on a QoQ basis against Rs 10.3 crore in Q4 FY24. Its operating revenue declined 11.2% from Rs 97.1 crore in Q1 FY24 to Rs 86.2 crore in the quarter ended June 2024. It dropped by 15.7% up against the preceding quarter.
ideaForge’s EBITDA was Rs 8.5 crore in Q1 FY25, 73.4% less than Rs 32 crore in the quarter ended June 2023. Additionally, the drone startup’s total expenses went up by 20% from Rs 75.5 crore to Rs 90.6 crore in the same period.
The cost of materials consumed accounted for the largest share, surging by 321% YoY from Rs 13.34 crore in Q1 FY24 to Rs 56.1 crore in Q1 FY25. Its employee benefit cost came down by 24.3% YoY from Rs 15.45 crore to Rs 11.7 crore in the same period. In the first quarter of FY25, ideaForge was granted five patents along with ISO 27001:2022 and AS9100:D certifications.
Under its ESOP scheme, the drone giant granted 1.45 lakh new stock options to eligible employees.
ideaForge recently made an equity investment in space tech startup GalaxEye for the prototyping of fog penetration radar. The former has also developed next-gen payloads with onboard AI computing features along with high-altitude trials of its drones in the Himalayas region.
The drone startup is set to expand its global market share as its Early Adopter Program received positive feedback from customers in the US.
CEO Ankit Mehta commented, “The paid PoC (proof of concept) agreements with prominent enterprise customers for Drone as a Service (DaaS) are a validation of our efforts and vision for the future of this technology. We are confident that in times to come DaaS will drive technology adoption and will prove to be instrumental in demand generation.”
