Transforming agriculture with drone tech: The rise of Thanos Technologies

The agricultural drones automate the hazardous task of pesticide spraying, thereby improving the lives of Indian farmers

For many of us, the name Thanos evokes the image of the big bad from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But, for farmers in states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra, Thanos Technologies is synonymous with safety. Its drones automate the hazardous task of pesticide spraying, thereby improving the lives of these farmers.

Founded in 2016 by Pradeep Palelli, a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Certified Drone Pilot with over 15 years of experience in the industry, Thanos Technologies aims to transform the landscape of drone application in India, with an emphasis on the agriculture sector.

“Around 2015, I started seeing a new wave of applications for drone technology, not necessarily in India, but globally. But I was more keen on bringing out a more commercial application. That is where agriculture came into play,” Palelli said.

Before founding Thanos, he co-founded the roof-top solar company Zolt Energy.

While speaking to farmers, he identified a gap in the market pertaining to pesticide spraying activity. The availability of manual labour was fast dwindling, as the process was inefficient and had several health hazards. The space was ripe for automation.

Strategic benefits

Typically, the conventional method of spraying requires nearly 100-150 litres of pesticide per acre. Using Thanos’ drones, Palelli claims that this comes down to just 8-10 litres.

The company’s aerial spraying platform covers an acre of land in a uniform and efficient manner. The drones use GPS technology to map the entire field. Once that is done, a couple of settings like the height and speed of the drone are entered.

After this, all basic checks are performed and the drone lifts off. No manual intervention is necessary during the spraying activity, and the drone comes back to the starting point by itself or can be brought back manually if needed.

The company has, to date, supplied close to 300 drones across six states, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Most of the production has taken place during the last year and a half due to a lack of regulations in the sector prior to 2021.

“Until 2021, there were no proper regulations in place. We did struggle with that, which is why growth has been a bit slow for the first four or five years. We spent a lot of time in pilots and testing and refining the product. Since then, we have started producing at a large scale,” Palelli said.

Tracing the flight path

Drones are currently governed by the Drones Rules 2021 which was later amended in February 2022. According to media reports, the Civil Aviation Ministry is also now working on a differentiated regulatory framework with separate sets of guidelines for drone usage for civilian purposes and defence or law enforcement purposes.

Before regulations came into the mix, the company, instead of supplying drones, took a service-based approach. It, therefore, catered to non-agriculture sectors like defence as well. Prior to 2021, the company did close to 5000 acres of spraying services, because production and sales were not allowed.

Aside from regulatory challenges, the Indian drone sector is also facing a shortage of skilled manpower, especially technicians and pilots. The bootstrapped company is also looking to raise its first round of funding in the next couple of months.

“We are looking to raise around up to $5 million in funding for our first round. Discussions are ongoing with investors and we expect to close something in the next two or three months,” Palelli said.

Thanos’s transformation

According to Palelli, 2021 was a turning point for Thanos Technologies, after which large orders started to pour in. “Last year, we broke even and closed Rs 20 crore in revenue. This year, we have an ambitious target of more than Rs 75 crore and we expect to have close to 8-10 per cent profit margin,” Palelli said.

The company, which has a team of 40 people at the moment, is expecting to produce around 1,500 drones this year.

To meet its goals, Thanos has set up a new manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Hyderabad. “Last week, we opened up a new facility. Before that, we had a unit with an annual production capacity of 100-120 drones. With the new facility, we will have an annual production capacity of 3000 drones. We expect to become a major player in the sector over the next few years,” Palelli said.

Thanos is primarily working on agritech, agri-automation, and agri-intelligence sectors, in terms of crop health monitoring and plant count. However, it is also looking to foray into the defence sector as early as this year.