Chennai, Feb 13 (IANS): Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) player Garuda Aerospace on Monday said it has raised $22 million as Series A funding.

According to Garuda Aerospace, the funding round was led by Venture Capital firm SphitiCap which invested $12 million along with participation from other global investors, angel investors and high net worth individuals (HNI) at $5 million.

Another $5 million in funding from an infra-development company, a group of HNIs and angel investors from India, UAE and Singapore was secured by the startup earlier.

The company will use the funds raised for scaling up and research and development for building advanced drone solutions for the armed forces in collaboration with global companies for the defence and aerospace sector.

The funds will also be used for the skilling and training of drone pilots and help create employment with deepening its footprints in Tier II and III cities.

Speaking on the funding Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO said: "Garuda Aerospace aims to sell 25,000 drones in the next 18 months and is looking forward to exporting 10,000 drones to about 100 countries in the next 15 months."

Pallav Kumar Singh, Managing Partner, SphitiCap said: "Given the evolving preferences and horizontal expansion with the usage of drones in several sectors, there is a vision of promising growth beneficial for both companies. With this, drones will be playing a major in nearly every sector in the future."