Airbound, an Indian drone manufacturer, has secured $37 million in Series A funding to advance its vision of making aerial cargo delivery competitive with traditional trucking. The investment round was led by Greenoaks and included participation from delivery platform DoorDash, investor Lachy Groom, and several venture firms. This latest raise brings the three-year-old company’s total funding to nearly $50 million since its founding in 2023.
The startup’s competitive advantage lies in its innovative aircraft design. Unlike conventional aircraft that consume significant energy transporting their own weight, Airbound has engineered drones that weigh less than their payload. The company’s current model, called TRT, weighs just 3.3 pounds while carrying 2.2 pounds of cargo. An upcoming version will weigh 6.6 pounds and carry up to 11 pounds, using a distinctive rocket-like tail-sitter design that enables vertical takeoff and landing without requiring runways.
Airbound has already demonstrated operational capability, completing over 13,000 autonomous flights in southern Indian cities including Bengaluru and Guntur. The company currently operates with Narayana Health, transporting diagnostic samples between facilities in approximately seven minutes—a journey that would take hours by truck. The startup has signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh state government to develop a three-city drone network targeting 10,000 daily flights for retail, e-commerce, and healthcare deliveries.
Despite its technological progress, Airbound remains pre-revenue as regulatory approval for beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations remains a significant hurdle. Founder Naman Pushp emphasized the company’s long-term strategy, stating the goal is to become an aircraft manufacturer comparable to Boeing rather than a delivery operator, allowing other logistics networks to utilize its technology platform.
Originally reported by Techcrunch →
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