Starting with little more than ideas, personal experience, and a 3D printer in a small hostel room, two students from BITS Pilani, Hyderabad, ventured on a journey that few in their 20s would imagine: building drones for India’s defence sector.
Jayant Khatri, 20, a mechanical engineering student from Ajmer, and Sourya Choudhury, 21, an electrical engineering student from Kolkataare the co-founders of Apollyon Dynamics, a defence-tech startup that has already secured its first clients.
The duo’s product lineup — including trainer drones, multi-role drones, tactical drones with waypoint navigation, and their flagship kamikaze drones — all took shape within the confines of their campus dorm. Their kamikaze drone is particularly impressive, hitting speeds over 300 km/h, is radar-proof, and capable of delivering a 1 kg payload.
The build-up
For Khatri and Choudhury, the decision to enter defence technology wasn’t a sudden pivot, it was a culmination of years of passion and planning. “The two-month part is what’s recent,” says Khatri, referring to the launch of their company. “We had been making drones for a long time before that. I have been making robots since Grade 5.”
Since the start of their college careers, the duo knew they wanted to build a business together.
This shared ambition led them to establish ‘Team Vidrohi,’ a defence-tech society on the college campus last year that not only attracted other youngsters but also trained them. Through this group, they honed their skills by participating in international drone races and building a range of projects, from racing drones and robots to prosthetic limbs and hovercrafts. They even created their racing drone league, Apollyon, to test their creations in a competitive environment.
But it wasn’t until March of this year that they decided to focus on defence technology. “We knew drones were all the rage, and we saw how effective they were in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Since we were already so interested in drones, it was the perfect area for us to specialise in,” says Choudhury.
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A 3D printer, a lab, and a soldering iron
Their early efforts started on their campus. With a 3D printer and access to the college workshop, the duo spent days cutting frames, which they would then bring back to their hostel room to finish. “We’d put on N95 respirators and use a Dremel to smooth them out,” Choudhury explains. “It was a lot of work at first, but once we got the hang of it, things started to come together.”
Their initial funding was pieced together from different sources. Khatri invested Rs 2 lakh he had won from a grant in his first year, and their professor, Sanket Goel, provided some additional financial support and, crucially, access to his lab. This move to the lab marked a significant turning point, allowing them to streamline their production process.
The students’ limited budget at the start was also a key factor in their choice of technology. “We chose drones because they’re comparatively cheaper than other tech,” Choudhury notes.
“Sitting in a hostel room and soldering iron in hand, tinkering with the circuits, and getting the 3D printer to work. This was a whole different experience. We got to learn it from scratch,” says Choudhury, adding, “Had we got all the resources and a lot of funding straight away, we would not have a fair idea of what all could go wrong.”
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Their persistent cold emails paid off when the Indian Army invited them to Chandigarh to demonstrate their drones in March. “They were really happy after the demonstration,” Khatri said, “and asked us to stay longer so more units could see our work. We even tested our drones with live detonators and proper bombs.”
‘Like a subway sandwich’
Their success lies not only in the drones but also in the philosophy behind them — they are designed to be easy to mass-produce, economical, and modular. Choudhury says their products aren’t meant to compete with expensive drones that the Army currently uses. Instead, their business model focuses on providing affordable, customisable drones for individual units.
To illustrate this, Choudhury uses an analogy: “We’re like a Subway sandwich. You pick the base bread and add whatever fillings and seasonings you want. We are the drone company equivalent of Subway.”
This approach allows for a swarm-like deployment of droneswhich can be tailored to the specific terrain and environmental needs of each unit, providing a more versatile and cost-effective solution.
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The team is already planning its next phase, focusing on jammer technology, fixed-winged drones, and VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) unmanned aerial systems. “We want to provide a lot of value,” Khatri says. “We want to work on actual problems and not find a problem for a solution that we make.”
This problem-solving philosophy is already showing results. Their startup has successfully delivered its indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles to Indian Army units in JammuChandimandir (Haryana), Panagarh (West Bengal), and Arunachal Pradesh.
For Khatri and Choudhury, the journey from soldering circuits to supplying drones to defence forces is just the beginning.
