3D maps at your fingertips

City-based start-up, DronaMaps uses geographic information systems to improve digital maps

Young talent Ronak Khandelwal, president of DronaMap

Helping officials in successfully managing 30 lakh people who had gathered to participate in the Teej festival in Rajasthan was no small achievement. All thanks to the city-based startup, DronaMaps specialising in 3D mapping technology, which enabled the district magistrate, police force and volunteers to handle the crowd successfully. Not just that, the startup also ensured in bringing down the average annual casualty due to drowning and stampede from 30 pilgrims to zero during the three-day festival.

Founded by two youngsters, Ronak Khandelwal and Utkarsh Singh, the startup is riding high on its early success.Today, DronaMaps has a team of seven creative youngsters which includes Raghav Palriwala (IIM-Indore), Sajil KR (IIT-Bombay) and Ayushi Mishra (Johns Hopkins University), who are passionate about application of the cutting edge technology in India.

Set up with the savings of the founders and with the help of funds mobilised from relatives, the startup is now in the process of raising venture capital funding. DronaMaps, which moved to the Startup Accelerator India (SAI) at the Sunrise Incubation Hub here from Indore, has developed the technology using drone cameras. “Our story started with Utkarsh buying a drone as part of his hobby while studying computer science at Johns Hopkins University,” says Khandelwal.

The startup has also helped in promoting huge industrial areas and attracting major investments by using 3D maps. It is on the threshold of transforming into a commercial entity and is in talks with Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and other governments to take up 3D mapping of land, cropping pattern and other data.

The startup, which aims at recreating the world with centimetre-level accuracy in 3D, is part of Jio Gen-Next Cohort-2018 to explore the use of mapping technology in agriculture.

UAV-based solutions

“We set out to create UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) based solutions to transform the way organisations use physical assets. In the process, we performed pilots with some of the most critical governments, commercial, and non-profit institutions in India to solve problems we had not even dreamt of,” says Singh, founder-CEO of DronaMaps.

The startup has also worked with the University of Berkeley at Mori, the first smart village in Andhra Pradesh. “We provide a common visual platform to observe, measure, monitor, plan, and use physical assets. We understand that rather than all-or-nothing access controls, an adaptive approach is required and our maps allow for selective access,” says Khandelwal.