Defence electronics startup Sanlayan raises Rs 186 Cr in Series A

Aerospace and defence startup Sanlayan Technologies has raised Rs 186 crore ($22 million) in its Series A funding round led by marquee investors Ashish Kacholia, Lashit Sanghvi and Jungle Ventures, with participation from existing investors Gemba Capital, Singularity Ventures, and new investor Shastra VC.

With the fresh funding, Sanlayan plans to increase its engineering headcount fivefold in the next six months. According to the startup, it is actively hiring domain experts, R&D scientists, retired armed forces veterans, and senior leadership from both public sector undertakings and private defence giants.

Founded by former Zetwerk employees Abhijit Kothawale, Rohan Gala, and Rahul Vamsidhar, Sanlayan specializes in the design and development of advanced electronic systems, including radar, electronic warfare, and mission-critical avionics. The startup raised $4.4 million in its seed round in March last year from prominent institutional investors, including First Cheque, Gemba Capital, Singularity Ventures, and others.

“We will continue to acquire capabilities both organically and inorganically. We are allocating capital for suo-moto development of critical technologies for CUAS and EW systems. In the last six months, we have strengthened Dexcel’s design and manufacturing capabilities and are now gearing up to execute large-scale indigenisation and upgrade programs,” said Rohan Gala, co-founder and CEO of Sanlayan.

Sanlayan recently acquired a majority stake in 20-year-old embedded systems firm Dexcel Electronics to boost its capability to deliver advanced indigenous solutions for defense, aerospace, and space sectors.

Dexcel Electronics has contributed to key programs like Jaguar, Sukhoi, LCA Tejas, and Chandrayaan-3. Sanlayan, leveraging its in-house R&D, is also developing AESA radar for India’s unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) program.