A myth regarding "serving to the country" exists in citizens' brains, that to serve the nation it is needed to be in the army or defense, but there is a startup that is contributing to the national security with their surveillance systems-based products.

This not only gives strength to national security but also shows the different paths and opportunities for the startup's ideas, this also becomes special because of being "Locally Developed".

A surveillance system developed by a little-known Bengaluru-based startup has come in handy for the Indian armed forces — that have traditionally used foreign-made weapons — to keep a check on intrusions by Chinese soldiers at the border.

The long-range observation system deployed by the Indian Army goes by the name T-Rex, doffing its hat to the famous carnivore from the Jurassic age, and has been designed in Koramangala, Bengaluru, by a startup named Tonbo Imaging. The advanced imaging solutions by Tonbo is one of the rare, notable ‘Make in India’ alternatives for India’s armed forces, which have historically relied on Russia, Israel, and the United States for advanced weapons and self-defense systems. (Tonbo supplied the night- vision goggles that were fitted on the helmets of Indian soldiers during the famous Uri surgical strikes.)

Being used in the URI strike, one can understand how helpful these systems were to the operation, soldiers, and nation. T-Rex is a long-range surveillance system that can pick up movement day and night even at a range of 15 to 20 kilometers. It has night vision capabilities and GPS trackers that guide the defense forces towards potential incursions. T-Rex, which is powered by fuel cells, allows the army to develop unmanned stations, requiring soldiers to visit only for maintenance, thereby reducing the risks of danger.

“While our systems have been deployed in the Pakistan border in the past quite a few of them are now getting deployed in Ladakh, one of them is deployed at 18,000 feet,” said Arvind Lakshmikumar, founder, Tonbo Imaging.

India has traditionally relied on Israel for these surveillance systems, but now thanks to the Make in India push, Tonbo’s range of surveillance instruments has found a place in the Army’s cache of high-tech equipment. “The best thing about our products is that any small problem can be rectified in our Bengaluru center directly, without having to be flown out of the country,” Lakshmikumar said.

Wide range of products

From helmet-mounted night vision goggles for soldiers, thermal weapon sights for sniper rifles to solutions for aerial reconnaissance missions, Tonbo has an exhaustive inventory of products meant for the defense forces. These are designed in Bengaluru — India’s Silicon Valley — and manufactured across plants in Kochi and Mysuru.

Help From Self-Reliance Push

Tonbo Imaging was founded by Lakshmikumar, who holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. He returned to India in 2004 as the India head for Sarnoff Technologies, which was a subsidiary of Stanford Research.

In 2009, Lakshmikumar bought out the management and restructured the company to create Serial Innovations. The company was later renamed Tonbo Imaging in 2012.

India Business

Tonbo has a registered entity in the country based in Bengaluru, but the holding company is in Singapore. It currently has a team of 150 engineers who work on the technology that powers its imaging solutions.

For its businesses in Asia and the South East Asia, Tonbo has manufacturing lines in Mysuru and Kochi. For its western customers, the manufacturing plant is in Lithuania in Europe. The manufacturing set ups are outsourced to local manufacturers.

“While production happens in these facilities, the software systems are still owned by us,” he said.

Tonbo is positioning itself as a premium yet cost effective defence supplier in India and the founding team hopes that they can fill up the void that has been created in the market through over reliance on imports. “Look at the US and see how much of mergers and acquisitions are reported from there regularly, these are signs of a vibrant defence industry,” Lakshmikumar said.

Powerful backers

Building a deep tech startup is not like building consumer facing service platforms. Venture capitalists are hardly interested in investing in such ventures which take long to scale and require massive investments to support the research and development needed to build these high-end products.

Government funding is available but that brings restrictions in terms of which countries the products can be sold to. Tonbo reached out to deep-pocket private corporations for strategic investments.

Company data showed the founders and the employees together own around 30 percent of the company while the remaining 70 percent are owned by enterprises such as AVLP Asia Investments, Qualcomm Ventures, and Edelweiss Private Equity.

Tonbo reported aggregated revenue across its entities of around Rs 150 crore; industry estimates suggest the firm could be presently valued at roughly Rs 500 crore.

Tonbo plans to scale up its product suite globally and is investing in its research and development to improve its product suite. As geopolitical tensions rise, defence startups are primed for lucrative deals with armed forces.