Deepinder Goyal’s LAT Aerospace acquires Gurugram-based startup Sharang Shakti to boost in-house defence capabilities | Company Business News

Eternal-owned Zomato’s founder, Deepinder Goyal’s aviation startup LAT Aerospace, has acquired a Gurugram-based early-stage defence robotic startup named Sharang Shakti as the company plans to boost its indigenous defence capabilities, according to a social media post on X.

Deepinder Goyal, in his recent post, announced LAT Aerospace’s recent acquisition move on Tuesday, 24 February 2026, and said that this move marks the first step towards building indigenous defence capabilities.

“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,” said Goyal in his post.

‘Slowly but surely’ — LAT Aerospace’s goal

Deepinder Goyal, who is the founder of LAT Aerospace, also said that “slowly but surely” the company aims to build on its in-house capabilities to finally deploy the developments across both defence and civil programs over time.

“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,” said Deepinder Goyal in his post on X.

The founder also highlighted that the civil aviation and defence sector in Indian is often considered separate, but at the core level, the technology is shared across the autonomy, perception, sensing, navigation, guidance, and control systems.

Goyal’s idea behind the startup

Mint reported earlier in January 2026 that Deepinder Goyal’s ‘radical’ idea is to develop technology in an effort to eliminate the need for elaborate airport infrastructure in India.

In a podcast with YouTuber Raj Shamani, Deepinder Goyal revealed his idea behind the aviation startup that he aims to change the aviation sector by providing services like takeoff and landing capabilities within 20 metres.

“Takeoff and landing within, let’s say 20 metres, which will in turn eliminate the need for the elaborate airport infrastructure. This has never been done in this world. This is radical in terms of aviation,” said Goyal.

This idea comes on the backdrop of how people are travelling to an airport and waiting to board, taking 3 hours before another 3-hour-long flight. Goyal called it ‘senseless’ as it is the same time taken to drive from Delhi to Chandigarh.

According to the company website, LAT Aerospace is an aviation startup which was jointly founded by Deepinder Goyal and Surobhi Das in January 2025. The company is building a new generation of Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft, which will be designed to operate compact air-stops rather than conventional airports.