Skylark Labs Signs $35M Deal with ideaForge to Embed Self-Learning AI Across India's Largest Drone Fleet
New York, NY - November 04, 2025 - (SeaPRwire) - Skylark Labs, a US AI innovator, and ideaForge Technology Limited, India's leading drone manufacturer, have signed a $35 million, five-year licensing agreement that both companies say marks a pivotal moment for autonomous systems. The partnership will embed Skylark Labs' self-learning, on-edge AI across ideaForge's operational fleet, turning unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from programmed tools into adaptive, cognitive partners.
Skylark Labs' technology, shaped by research linked to DARPA's Lifelong Learning Machines (L2M) program, lets drones learn from their surroundings without cloud connectivity. Combined with ideaForge's globally ranked platforms, which have logged more than 700,000 customer flights, the integration of Skylark Labs' "brain" into ideaForge's robust "body" aims to set a new benchmark for autonomy in demanding defense, security, and industrial missions.
"This marks a historic leap for autonomous flight," mentions Dr. Amarjot Singh, founder and CEO of Skylark Labs. "By embedding a self-learning AI brain across ideaForge's operational fleet, we're proving that adaptive intelligence can now live entirely on the edge. This is the moment drones evolve from programmed machines into thinking partners."
Ankit Mehta, co-founder and CEO of ideaForge, adds, "Our collaboration with Skylark Labs sets a new standard for drone autonomy. With real-time, self-learning AI onboard, our systems can now perceive, decide, and act with unmatched speed and accuracy, raising the bar for performance in both defense and industrial missions."
Why the Partnership Matters: Self-learning AI and the DARPA Connection
Traditional AI is trained in the cloud and pushed to devices as static models. When the world changes—lighting, terrain, new obstacles—performance can drop, and fixes require time-consuming retraining. DARPA's L2M initiative set a different goal: machines that learn continuously, adapt in real time, and don't forget what they already know.
Skylark's approach reflects that brief. Learning happens on board, slashing latency, keeping sensitive data local, and maintaining performance when GPS or comms are limited or jammed. The five-year structure signals deep integration and a continuous feedback loop: more missions refine the AI; better AI drives wider deployment.
The partnership's timing aligns with a market shifting from data collection to real-time, on-device decisions, where latency, connectivity, and data-sovereignty pressures favor on-edge autonomy.
Partnership in Action
- Where Customers Feel it First
On the ground, this means smarter missions end to end: along borders, drones adjust routes as terrain and activity change and can learn new threat cues mid-flight (like a camouflaged vehicle or a hidden stash) without waiting for a cloud update.
At the same time, during disasters, they refine what real victims look like amid smoke, water, and debris, reducing false alarms and speeding up rescues. For infrastructure, they spot hairline cracks, corrosion, or loose bolts during the flight and pinpoint the exact location so teams can act immediately. In contested areas, if GPS is jammed or comms drop, they switch to vision-based mapping and keep tracking safely on their own.
Because each aircraft can perceive and decide locally, multiple drones can split up large areas, avoid one another, share findings, and re-task themselves, laying the groundwork for fast, coordinated swarm operations with minimal human input.
- Business model: autonomy that improves over time
Beyond hardware shipments, Skylark Labs and ideaForge's partnership will offer Autonomy-as-a-Service or subscription upgrades that deliver measurable performance gains (new skills, sharper detection, faster planning) so fleets can keep improving without new airframes. Customers will get a clear upgrade path, and operators will get a recurring, value-linked revenue stream.
Skylark Labs' new partnership follows another successful $21 million contract signed earlier this year to deploy AI-driven traffic-enforcement systems across Asia, expanding the company's footprint in both defense and civilian infrastructure.
About Skylark Labs
Founded in 2021 by Dr. Amarjot Singh, Skylark Labs develops adaptive artificial intelligence (AI) systems designed to learn, evolve, and operate autonomously in real-world environments. Headquartered in New York City, the company delivers next-generation AI solutions for mobility, public safety, and critical infrastructure applications.
Skylark Labs specializes in brain-inspired AI that continuously adapts to new challenges without requiring pre-training or constant connectivity. The company aims to pioneer embodied AI that seamlessly integrates into physical devices while evolving toward true general intelligence.
Skylark Labs' team brings together full-time engineers and advisors from Lockheed Martin, AT&T, and the CIA, uniting deep expertise in aerospace, communications, and AI systems. The company's technology, now being integrated across drones, ground robots, surveillance towers, and autonomous vehicles, advances its broader mission to create self-learning digital lifeforms that operate, adapt, and evolve in the real world.
Contact Details
Company: Skylark Labs
Contact: Dr. Amarjot Singh
Email: amarjot@skylarklabs.ai
Website: https://skylarklabs.ai
