Talks with Saurabh Agrawal
Talks with Saurabh Agrawal
Ankit Kumar: Building Drone Delivery Before India Had Rules for It
Ankit Kumar: Building Drone Delivery Before India Had Rules for It
Ankit Kumar: Building Drone Delivery Before India Had Rules for It
When Ankit Kumar started Skye Air, he was told autonomous drone delivery in India was at least a decade away. The company has since crossed 4 million autonomous deliveries.
Ankit is the Founder and CEO of Skye Air Mobility, the Gurugram-based drone logistics company that became the first in India to conduct beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) deliveries. Skye Air now runs doorstep drone delivery across Delhi NCR and Bengaluru, works with enterprise customers in e-commerce, quick commerce, and healthcare, and has partnered with India Post to open routes in Himachal Pradesh and Assam. The company closed a $9 million Series B and is expanding into Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.
When Ankit Kumar started Skye Air, he was told autonomous drone delivery in India was at least a decade away. The company has since crossed 4 million autonomous deliveries.
Ankit is the Founder and CEO of Skye Air Mobility, the Gurugram-based drone logistics company that became the first in India to conduct beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) deliveries. Skye Air now runs doorstep drone delivery across Delhi NCR and Bengaluru, works with enterprise customers in e-commerce, quick commerce, and healthcare, and has partnered with India Post to open routes in Himachal Pradesh and Assam. The company closed a $9 million Series B and is expanding into Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.
Background – education and career
Ankit holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, and began his career at Mahindra & Mahindra. He then spent close to a decade advising over 50 multinational corporations on market entry and growth strategy, with work spanning automotive, electric vehicles, drones, and clean energy.
He founded Skye Air in November 2019 and has been recognised with the BW 40 Under 40 award, with Skye Air named Drone Tech Startup of the Year. He has spoken on drone policy at forums including City-Tech Tokyo and on panels convened by the Indian Defence Ministry.
Background – education and career
Ankit holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, and began his career at Mahindra & Mahindra. He then spent close to a decade advising over 50 multinational corporations on market entry and growth strategy, with work spanning automotive, electric vehicles, drones, and clean energy.
He founded Skye Air in November 2019 and has been recognised with the BW 40 Under 40 award, with Skye Air named Drone Tech Startup of the Year. He has spoken on drone policy at forums including City-Tech Tokyo and on panels convened by the Indian Defence Ministry.
3 key takeaways from the episode
1. Regulation was the real bottleneck, not technology. Ankit is direct about the years spent operating in legal uncertainty before India's drone rules were eased.
2. The first delivery does all the convincing. Consumer trust in drone delivery turns out to be far easier to win than integration with existing logistics stacks.
Drones are a systems play, not a hardware play. Skye Air's model combines drones, smart pods, and ground rovers as one coordinated system rather than isolated equipment.
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