Indian drone manufacturer ideaForge has allocated employee stock option plans (ESOPs) valued at approximately Rs 7.95 crore.
According to a BSE filing on Friday, the company’s board approved the issuance of 95,954 equity shares on July 10. Each share has a face value of Rs 10 and was issued as part of the ideaForge Employees Stock Option Scheme, 2018, following employees exercising their vested stock options.
These newly allotted shares will possess the same rights and status as the existing equity shares. The company’s paid-up capital has now increased to Rs 42,98,59,540 from Rs 42,89,00,000, as noted in the filing.
On Friday, ideaForge’s shares closed 0.65% lower at Rs 829 on the BSE.
Prior to this announcement, the Mumbai-based firm had disclosed the issuance of 1,678 equity shares in June and 3,000 equity shares in May this year under the same ESOP scheme.
The ESOP announcement follows ideaForge’s acquisition of a non-controlling stake in GalaxEye Space for Rs 8.28 crore. GalaxEye, an IIT Madras-incubated spacetech startup, specializes in building multi-sensor imaging satellites.
In June 2023, ideaForge raised Rs 255 crore from anchor investors ahead of its listing on the Indian stock exchange. Founded in 2007 by Ankit Mehta, Rahul Singh, Vipul Joshi, and Ashish Bhat, ideaForge has the largest operational deployment of indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles across India.
According to NITI Aayog, drone startups secured $50 million in investment in FY24, marking a threefold increase from the previous year. The unmanned aerial vehicle market in India is projected to reach $15 billion by 2030. Markets research firm Markets and Markets projects that the Indian drone market will grow significantly, with drone volumes increasing to 61,393 units by 2029 from 10,803 units in 2024.
