Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, has made an investment in Yali Aerospace, a drone startup located in Tamil Nadu.

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Chennai-based SaaS giant Zoho, has announced an investment in Yali Aerospace, a drone startup from Thanjavur. The exact amount of the investment has not been revealed. This move is part of Vembu's initiative to encourage innovation and support local tech startups.

On X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, Vembu shared, "We are excited to announce our investment in Yali Aerospace, a Thanjavur-based drone startup led by Dinesh Baluraj and his wife Anugraha, who returned from the Netherlands to their hometown to establish this company."

This investment comes as India is actively promoting the use of drone technology to revolutionize sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, and defense. Yali Aerospace, founded in 2022 by Dinesh Baluraj and Anugraha after their return from the Netherlands, focuses on developing user-friendly drone technology for both civilian and military purposes.

Dinesh was inspired to start the company after a tragic incident where a mother lost her children in an accident, driving him to enhance healthcare facilities in rural India. Yali Aerospace's fixed-wing drones feature vertical take-off and landing capabilities, a range of up to 150 kilometers, and a payload capacity of 7 kilograms. These drones, which can reach speeds of 155 kilometers per hour, are designed to deliver medical supplies, including medicines and organs, across India in under 20 minutes via the Yali Network Bridge. They are also used for surveillance, logistics, precision farming, infrastructure inspection, and disaster response.