Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal's LAT Aerospace acquires defence robotics startup Sharang Shakti

LAT Aerospace, founded by Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal and its former COO Surobhi Das, has acquired Sharang Shakti, an early-stage defence robotics startup based in Gurugram, to build shared technology for sensing, navigation and control systems. In a post on X on Tuesday, Goyal stated that the intent is to build in-house capabilities and deploy them across both defence and civil programmes over time. Goyal resigned as the Managing Director and Group CEO of Eternal -- parent entity of Zomato and Blinkit -- last month to pursue what he termed ''new ideas that involve significantly higher-risk exploration and experimentation''. He was appointed as the Vice Chairman of Eternal. ''LAT Aerospace has acquired Sharang Shakti, an early-stage defence robotics startup based in Gurgaon. This is our first move toward building indigenous defence capabilities alongside our long-term mission of developing next-generation civil aviation platforms from India,'' Goyal wrote on X. He observed that while civil aviation and defence are often viewed as separate sectors, the core technology stack is shared across autonomy, perception, sensing, navigation, guidance, and control systems. ''By bringing Sharang Shakti into LAT, we are building these capabilities in-house, from first principles, with the intent to deploy them across both defence and civil programs over time. Slowly but surely,'' Goyal concluded. Founded in January 2025 by Goyal and Das, LAT Aerospace is building a new generation of Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft - engineered to operate from compact air-stops rather than conventional airports.