Shefali Vinod Ramteke, Founder of PS-192

Shefali Vinod Ramteke is the founder and COO of PS-1925, a startup firm that designs and develops unmanned aerial vehicles for commercial use. Its product line includes a number of multi-copter drones with applications in precision agriculture, security and surveillance, deliveries, industrial inspections, and other fields. It claims to be one of the top twelve most promising smart city businesses in the world, as well as the only one from India. The startup was advanced by AcceliCITY in 2018.

She is a dual degree student at the Indian Institute of Information Technology Allahabad, where she is pursuing a B.Tech, Shefali Vinod Ramteke teamed up with her batchmate Paawan Kumar to compete in a national fixed-wing aircraft and fabrication contest during her first year of college, while pursuing a BTech in Electronics Engineering from IIIT, Allahabad. Their mentors commented that theirs was the most steady flying aircraft they had seen in their many years of organizing such contests and seminars, and they won first place. Electronics and Communication Engineering and an M.Tech in Biomedical Engineering.

AIM-NITI Aayog has provided an excellent opportunity for the TOP 15 Tech Startups that includes Paawan Kumar and Shefali Vinod Ramteke’s PS-1925 team that were shortlisted through the Startup Mentorship Program held at AICTE in June 2018 to participate in the Vibrant Gujarat Start-Up and Technology Summit (VGSTS 2018).

Despite having a unique idea and the potential for entrepreneurship, Shefali and Paawan struggled with self-doubt before launching their business. In 2018, the tide turned in their favor when they were chosen for the inaugural cohort of the Canada-India Acceleration Programme, a collaboration between the All India Council of Technical Education and Carleton University, and the Canada India Centre for Excellence. They had focused on agriculture drone development at the time and intended to alleviate the concerns of Indian farmers.