IPO Corner: ideaForge Technology Ltd.

Mumbai-based Drone maker ideaForge Technology is the pioneer and the pre-eminent market leader in the Indian unmanned aircraft systems market, with a market share of approximately 50% in fiscal 2022 has fixed the price band at ₹638 to ₹672 per Equity Share for its maiden public offer. The initial public offering of the Company will open on Monday, 26 June, 2023, for subscription and closes on Thursday, 29 June, 2023. Investors can bid for a minimum of 22 Equity Shares and in multiples of 22 Equity Shares thereafter.

• Issue Closes on: Thursday, June 29, 2023
• Price Band: ₹638 to ₹672 per Equity Share
• Face Value: ₹ 10 per equity share
• Lot Size: 22 Shares

The public issue with a face value of Rs 10 per equity share comprises of Rs 240 crore of fresh issue and an offer for sale of 4,869,712 equity shares. The offer also includes a reservation for a subscription by eligible employees. The proceeds from its fresh issuance to the tune of Rs. 50 crore will be utilised for repayment / prepayment of certain indebtedness availed by the Company, Rs 135 towards funding working capital gap, Rs 40 crore for investment in product development and general corporate purposes. The Company through its IPO will fetch Rs 550.69 crore – Rs 567.24 crore at the lower and upper end of the price band.

ideaForge Technology has been backed by several marquee ventures and private equity investors including Qualcomm Asia, Infosys, and Celesta Capital. Mathew Cyriac backed Florintree Enterprises is the single largest shareholder in the company with approximately 11.85% stake had invested in the company in April 2022.

Founded in 2007 and led by first generation entrepreneurs, ideaForge, has a first mover advange and caters to customers with applications for surveillance, mapping and surveying. Its customers include the armed forces, central armed police forces, state police departments, disaster management forces, forest departments besides other civil customers. ideaForge had an outstanding order book of Rs 192.27 crore as on March 31, 2023.

ideaForge currently manufactures Middle Mile drones which are differentiated basis weight, endurance, take off altitude range, communication range as well as the kind of payload it is supposed to carry.  Switch UAV, Netra V4+ and V4 PRO UAV, Q6 UAV, Ninja UAV, Q4i UAV, and Ryno UAV are examples of ideaForge drones that are rugged unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that have been tested in extreme weather conditions and high altitudes across India from deserts to glaciers and offers the highest technical life of 2,000+ landings. It plans to expand its product portfolio to Tactical UAVs and Last Mile Logistic drone too. Comparing the last 2 fiscals, its revenue from operations increased by 16.66% from ₹159.44 crore in the Fiscal 2022 to ₹186.01 crore in the Fiscal 2023, whereas profit after tax stood at Rs 31.99 crore in Fiscal 2023.