Zuppa, a deep-tech drone startup, has raised $1.5 million in a bridge funding round led by Rahul Dewan (founder of global software engineering company and Sangam Talks), with participation from Ajay Gupta (founder of Capital Foods) and The Mangwani Family Office (former owners of Aquapharm Chemicals).
Rahul Dewan has invested ₹5 crore through Four Pursuits Ventures.
The funds raised will be used to strengthen and expand its footprint in its presence in defence and dual-use drone technologies.
Founded in 2012 by Sai Pattabiram and Venkatesh Sai, ZUPPA Geo Navigation Technologies is a Chennai-based, fully homegrown deep tech company.
Zuppa has built robust, fully indigenous flight control systems, navigation stacks, and autonomous drone capabilities—all engineered in-house. Their drone solutions are designed to operate in complex, real-world environments without reliance on GPS or high-bandwidth internet—a key differentiator in both Indian and emerging global markets.
Zuppa’s proprietary technology has already been deployed across varied use cases in Defence that include Secure drone Cyber Physical Stacks, Vision Guidance, AI-based targeting, to name a few.
Sai Pattabiram, Founder & Managing Director, Zuppa, said, “We’re thrilled to receive backing from entrepreneurs who have built and scaled iconic, enduring businesses. What makes this round of investments meaningful is not just the funding itself, but the fact that entrepreneurs who have successfully scaled businesses have found value in ZUPPA. Entrepreneurs who understand scale, disruption, and product-market fit, finding value in Zuppa’s deep-tech IP and its relevance in the drone-powered future of India, is an endorsement of its unique position in the emerging tech space.”
Venkatesh Sai, Co-Founder & Technical Director at Zuppa, said, “This is more than a bridge round—it’s a launchpad. We’re entering an exciting phase where AI and automation will drive next-gen drone capabilities.This funding allows us to build faster, deploy smarter, and expand our ecosystem with long-term vision and strategic clarity.”
