Airbound Raises $8.6 Mn To Scale Logistics Drone Manufacturing

Logistics drone manufacturer Airbound has raised $8.6 Mn (around INR 76 Cr) in its seed funding round led by US-based Physical Intelligence’s founder Lachy Groom, with participation from Humba Ventures and existing backer Lightspeed.

The funding round also saw participation from senior leaders at Tesla, Anduril and Ather Energy.

The startup aims to use the capital to scale drone manufacturing and improve reliability of its drones, cofounder Naman Pushp told Inc42.

In a statement, Airbound also announced a three-month pilot partnership with multispeciality hospital chain Narayana Health to complete 10 medical deliveries per day, including blood samples, test kits, and essential supplies.

“Insights from the Narayana Health pilot will inform future logistics solutions, reduce delivery costs, and accelerate adoption across industries,” the startup said.

Airbound also plans to utilise a part of the capital to expand operations beyond medical deliveries, refine its technology, and prepare for the wider market. “We’ve also built a system called Rudra, which allows us to manage over 100 drones at once with a single pilot,” Pushp said.

Airbound’s Logistics Drones

Founded in 2023 by Pushp, Airbound manufactures its proprietary blended wing body tailsitter design drone, called TRT. The startup claims that the drones have a range of 37 kilometers and can lower delivery costs.

Initially, the startup plans to deploy the TRT drones for transporting blood samples and other medical essentials from rural health centres to urban testing facilities. It aims to establish a strong footing in the healthcare logistics area before moving into other sectors like food and grocery delivery.

Currently, its aircraft weighs 1.5 kg and can carry 1 kg of payload. It plans to move towards a 1.2 kg aircraft that can carry 3 kg of payload.

In November last year, Airbound raised$1.7 Mn (about INR 14.34 Cr) in its pre-seed round led by Lightspeed, with participation from gradCapital and other angel investors.

Funding Galore For Dronetech Startups

The development comes at a time when adoption of drones is on the rise in the country and they are being used for diverse purposes from agriculture and healthcare to border surveillance, disaster management, traffic control, and logistics.

The Indian drone market is expected to reach a size of $13 Bn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 21% between 2022 and 2030. Investors are looking to capitalise on this opportunity and are actively backing drone startups.

Last month, IIT Kanpur-incubated dronetech startup EndureAir Systems raised INR 25 Cr from IAN Alpha Fund, along with IAN Angel Fund. Prior to that, Hyderabad-based dronetech startup Vayudh raised $10 Mn (around INR 83.5 Cr) in an undisclosed funding round led by Dharana Capital.

Defence-focussed startup Indrajaal raised INR 48 Cr (about $5.5 Mn) last month in its pre-Series A round co-led by India Accelerator and Finvolve.

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