Airbound, an Indian drone startup, has raised $8.65 million in seed investment led by means of Bodily Intelligence co-founder Lachy Groom, because it starts a drone-delivery pilot with a non-public clinic and works towards one-cent shipping the use of its ultra-light, blended-wing-body airplane.
The seed spherical contains participation from Humba Ventures and Airbound’s current investor Lightspeed Challenge Companions, in addition to senior leaders at Tesla, SpaceX, and Anduril.
Based in 2020 by means of Naman Pushp — who was once 15 on the time and is now 20 — Airbound has evolved an airplane the use of a tail-sitter design (the place the drone sits vertically and launches upright like a rocket) and carbon fiber body, aiming to ship parcels at as much as 20 occasions lower price than standard strategies and considerably less expensive than current drone shipping methods. The airplane makes use of a blended-wing-body form with two propellers, reasonably than the extra commonplace quadcopter configuration. This allows the airplane to take off like a rocket and fly like a airplane.
Airbound is concentrated on one-cent deliveries by means of rethinking how calories is used to transport items, founder and CEO Pushp mentioned in an interview.
Usually, electrical two-wheelers are utilized in India to ship payloads weighing underneath 3 kilograms, Pushp informed TechCrunch, despite the fact that the cars themselves weigh round 150 kilograms (331 kilos) and value about ₹2 (about $0.02) in keeping with kilometer in calories. Airbound goals to chop that price all the way down to as little as 10 paise (round $0.001) by means of the use of its drone, referred to as the TRT, which is constructed particularly for small payloads and gets rid of the will for a human motive force — decreasing overall delivery weight by means of kind of 30 occasions. That, Pushp mentioned, interprets right into a 20-fold drop in calories price in keeping with kilometer, making one-cent drone shipping a possible finish state.
“There’s if truth be told a fantastic quantity of gaps between the place drones are these days and the place they are able to be,” the founder mentioned. “You want 4 kilograms of drone to boost one kilogram of payload, which is insane to me. Vary is a damaged metric. There’s no thought of aerodynamic potency with drones “[right now].”
The airplane’s rocket-like, blended-wing design removes the will for extra propellers and heavy transferring portions, making improvements to aerodynamic potency over standard quadcopters. Through averting propellers that disrupt airflow over the wing, the drone maintains a better lift-to-drag ratio, decreasing the quantity of thrust had to keep aloft and making ahead flight considerably extra energy-efficient, the founder informed TechCrunch.
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The primary model of Airbound’s drone weighs 3.3 kilos and carries a payload of as much as 2.2 kilos, and the startup additionally goals for its 2d model to fortify a 6.6-pound payload whilst weighing simply 2.6 kilos itself.
A prototype of the second one model is predicted to be able and flying by means of mid-next yr, with manufacturing centered for the primary quarter of 2027, Pushp mentioned.
“Whilst you get into the sector of autonomy, logistics is only a physics downside. It’s a sport of potency and weight. And so in case you have a decrease weight than any person else and a better potency than others, you win,” Pushp mentioned.
He started operating on Airbound all over the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, impressed by means of a video of Zipline, the on-demand drone shipping corporate. He submitted an early prototype — comprised of 2D slices held along side toothpicks and tape, then sanded to resemble a fiberglass physique — to a hackathon, the place it earned a $500 grant. That have induced him to use to Y Combinator, despite the fact that he was once now not accredited. As a substitute, he gained a $1,000 grant from the 1517 Fund in 2021, adopted by means of a $25,000 test from Logo Capital and a $12,000 grant from Emergent Ventures.
At 17, Pushp gained a time period sheet from Lightspeed, however waited till after his 18th birthday to signal it. “That was once the primary legally binding report that I signed,” he recalled.
The airplane packs lithium-ion batteries — as a substitute of a repeatedly used lithium-polymer battery pack. Lithium ion batteries in most cases have a cycle lifetime of 500 to 800 cycles, while lithium polymer lasts for round 100–200 cycles, Pushp mentioned.
“The largest price of working those drones finally ends up being their battery substitute prices,” he mentioned.
The drone prices Airbound $2,000 to make and ₹24 (round $0.27) in keeping with shipping. The startup goals to chop the shipping price to under ₹5 (kind of $0.05) by means of the tip of 2026. It additionally tasks attaining one million deliveries in keeping with day by means of the center of 2027, and to succeed in that, it plans to extend its production capability to over 100 drones an afternoon. That is up from the startup’s present one-drone-per-day manufacturing charge at its Bengaluru facility.
Airbound has began its first pilot program with Bengaluru’s Narayana Well being by which it’s going to ship scientific logistics for 3 months, aiming to finish ten deliveries an afternoon of scientific exams, blood samples, and different important provides.
Then again, Airbound additionally goals different sectors together with fast trade, meals deliveries, and “a couple of different smaller spaces of last-mile” shipping, the founder informed TechCrunch.
Airbound additionally plans to move past India after scaling to 1,000,000 deliveries in keeping with day and input the U.S. in 3 years. In the meantime, the startup may be in talks with regulators together with India’s Directorate Common of Civil Aviation to begin its flights quickly.
So far, Airbound has raised over $10 million in overall investment, and it has a staff of fifty other folks.
The newest spherical will assist scale its production functions and make bigger operations. The pilot program may even assist make stronger its provider and scale back prices to raised get ready for broader marketplace adoption in 2026, the startup mentioned.
