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Z Axis Unmanned Machines Pvt Ltd, India’s first start-up catering to the defence, security and allied sectors, will showcase four categories of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) at the Make in India Week to be held in Mumbai from February 13 to 18.
Founded in 2015, Z Axis is the only start-up — and one of the two companies from Gujarat — to be selected to participate in the event, which will see attendees from 60 countries.
The Ahmedabad-based firm will showcase its products at the Defence and Aerospace Pavilion.
Jugal Pandya, co-founder and MD of Z Axis, told BusinessLine here on Tuesday that industrialist Pavan Bakeri, who is a co-founder and mentor of the start-up, has invested an undisclosed amount in it. Pandya, a commerce graduate, co-founded the firm in line with his passion for flying different multi-rotors and aircraft.
The UAVs — Dronaa, Tri-Netra, Yantra and Lakshya — have different applications and payloads. These can also be used in relief and rescue operations during disasters, locating trapped people at accident or fire sites, and to provide relief material, food packets and medicines to inaccessible areas, etc.
India has so far been importing UAVs from Israel, France and the US.
According to Z Axis, its products will work out 40 per cent cheaper while ensuring high performance and cutting-edge technology.
The products are made of carbon-fibre, which makes them at once lightweight and durable, said Bakeri.
They can be equipped with different payloads depending on customer needs.
“As the core focus of the company is to deal with different government bodies, especially defence, it is also developing in-house software used in the different UAVs in order to cut down dependence on third parties and to maintain secrecy of collected data intact,” he added.
Harmitsingh Sikh, Chief Marketing Officer, said India’s market size of small UAVs weighing up to 50 kg is expected to increase from ₹110 crore in 2015 to ₹200 crore by 2019.
At present, the defence sector accounts for 97 per cent market of the UAV market.
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