KshatraLabs Bags Pre-Seed to Build 'HAWK', an Autonomous Drone That Hunts Other Drones

The cheap, fast, hard-to-see drone has become one of the defining threats of modern conflict — and neutralising it is now a category of its own. A young Bengaluru startup, KshatraLabs, has raised undisclosed pre-seed funding to push its answer, an autonomous aerial interceptor called HAWK, towards field readiness.

The round was led by early-stage fund Finvolve together with India Accelerator. The company said the capital will go towards product development, engineering talent, intellectual property, certifications and the field validation needed to move its hard-kill counter-drone system up the technology-readiness ladder.

What HAWK is designed to do

HAWK is pitched as an autonomous interceptor that can detect, track and neutralise hostile UAVs travelling at speeds upwards of 89.5 metres per second — roughly 300 km/h — with less than five seconds of launch readiness. That last figure is the crux of the counter-drone problem: against a fast, low-flying quadcopter or a one-way attack drone, the window between detection and impact is measured in seconds, and a system that takes too long to get airborne is no defence at all.

The company describes a hard-kill approach — physically intercepting the incoming threat rather than relying solely on jamming or spoofing. Electronic-warfare countermeasures can be defeated by drones that fly pre-programmed routes without a live radio link, which is why kinetic interceptors have drawn growing interest from armed forces worldwide.

Where the technology stands

KshatraLabs says it has demonstrated autonomous interception and completed hardware-in-the-loop testing at 90 m/s — a simulation-and-hardware regime that lets engineers validate guidance, control and timing against realistic target speeds before live trials. The startup adds that it has engaged with the Indian Armed Forces for feedback on hard-kill systems, an early but important signal that it is designing to operational requirements rather than in a vacuum.

Founded in October 2025 and headquartered in Bengaluru, the company positions itself as a defence-robotics venture building both autonomous counter-drone systems and the next-generation command-and-control software to coordinate them. Rishav Dev Mishra is its co-founder and chief executive.

Why the timing fits

India's defence establishment has spent the past year visibly reorienting towards counter-drone and layered air defence. The Defence Acquisition Council's large clearance in July 2026 tilted heavily towards counter-UAS and air-defence capability, and indigenous systems — from DRDO's efforts to a wave of private startups — are being pulled forward by that demand. A domestic, autonomous, hard-kill interceptor slots directly into that priority list.

The counter-drone market is also crowded and unforgiving. Detection is comparatively easy; reliably and affordably killing a small, fast, manoeuvring target is not, and doing it without collateral risk in populated areas is harder still. Whether HAWK can hit its speed-and-readiness numbers in live field conditions — not just hardware-in-the-loop — will determine how far this pre-seed carries the company. For now, KshatraLabs has the backing and the early armed-forces conversations to try.

Sources

• StartupTalky — Finvolve Backs KshatraLabs in Pre-Seed Round to Accelerate India's Indigenous Autonomous Counter-Drone Technology
• IndianWeb2 — Finvolve Backs DefenceTech Startup KshatraLabs to Build High-Speed Counter-Drone Systems
• Dealroom — Indian defense startup KshatraLabs secures pre-seed funding for counter-drone tech
• YourStory — Startup news and updates: daily roundup (August 12, 2026)