IdeaForge, the prominent drone manufacturing startup, has secured a substantial funding of ₹255 crore or $31 million from anchor investors, marking a major milestone just days after filing its Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The company aims to raise ₹570 crore from the public market through an upcoming initial public offering (IPO).
Notable entities participating in this funding round include prestigious names like Nomura Funds Ireland Public Ltd, Goldman Sachs Funds, Pinebridge Global Funds, Tata AIG General Insurance Company, Tata AIA Life Insurance Company, and Max Life Insurance Co Ltd. Additionally, several domestic mutual funds, including ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund (MF), Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Quant MF, Axis MF, HDFC MF, Nippon India MF, and Motilal Oswal MF, have also shown interest in the anchor round.
As per documents on the BSE website, ideaForge has allocated 37.93 lakh equity shares at ₹672 each, resulting in the funding size of ₹255 crore.
The brainchild of Ankit Mehta, Ashish Bhat, and Rahul Singh, ideaForge specializes in designing, manufacturing, and supplying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) along with associated hardware components such as payloads, batteries, chargers, and communication systems. Moreover, the company provides software and embedded sub-systems that cater to industry-specific applications. Its clientele includes the armed forces, central armed police forces, state police departments, forest departments, disaster management forces, and civil customers.
The IPO by ideaForge Technology is scheduled to kick off on June 26th and conclude on June 29th, with an offering price per share ranging between ₹638 to ₹672. The estimated IPO size stands at ₹550.69 crore to ₹567.24 crore for the lower and upper ends of the price band, respectively.
The IPO involves a fresh issuance of shares valued at ₹240 crore and an offer for sale of 48.69 lakh shares by promoters and investors. The proceeds from the fresh issuance will be utilized for various purposes, including ₹50 crore for debt repayment, ₹135 crore for bridging the working capital gap, ₹40 crore for investment in product development, and the rest for general corporate needs.
Notably, just last week, ideaForge raised ₹60 crore in a pre-IPO placement round from institutional investors like Tata AIG General Insurance, Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund, 360 ONE Special Opportunities Fund- Series 9 and 10, and Think Investments PCC.
With this significant funding accomplishment, ideaForge is now well-positioned for its IPO launch, garnering substantial interest from investors and industry stakeholders alike. The success of the IPO could potentially propel the company towards further growth and innovation in the drone manufacturing sector.
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Ankur Srivastava 
TET