India’s Airbound Bags $8.65m To Build Rocket-like Drones For One-cent Deliveries

Airbound, an Indian drone startup, has raised $8.65 cardinal successful seed backing led by Physical Intelligence co-founder Lachy Groom, arsenic it originates a drone-delivery aviator pinch a backstage infirmary and useful toward one-cent transportation utilizing its ultra-light, blended-wing-body aircraft.

The seed information includes information from Humba Ventures and Airbound’s existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners, arsenic good arsenic elder leaders astatine Tesla, SpaceX, and Anduril.

Founded successful 2020 by Naman Pushp — who was 15 astatine nan clip and is now 20 — Airbound has developed an craft utilizing a tail-sitter creation (where nan drone sits vertically and launches upright for illustration a rocket) and c fibre frame, aiming to present parcels astatine up to 20 times little costs than accepted methods and importantly cheaper than existing drone transportation systems. The craft uses a blended-wing-body style pinch 2 propellers, alternatively than nan much communal quadcopter configuration. This enables nan craft to return disconnected for illustration a rocket and alert for illustration a plane.

Airbound is targeting one-cent deliveries by rethinking really power is utilized to move goods, laminitis and CEO Pushp said successful an interview.

Typically, electrical two-wheelers are utilized successful India to present payloads weighing nether 3 kilograms, Pushp told TechCrunch, moreover though nan vehicles themselves measurement astir 150 kilograms (331 pounds) and costs astir ₹2 (about $0.02) per kilometer successful energy. Airbound intends to trim that costs down to arsenic debased arsenic 10 paise (around $0.001) by utilizing its drone, called nan TRT, which is built specifically for mini payloads and removes nan request for a quality driver — reducing full carrier weight by astir 30 times. That, Pushp said, translates into a 20-fold driblet successful power costs per kilometer, making one-cent drone transportation a feasible extremity state.

“There is really an unthinkable magnitude of gaps betwixt wherever drones are coming and wherever they tin be,” nan laminitis said. “You request 4 kilograms of drone to assistance 1 kilogram of payload, which is insane to me. Range is simply a surgery metric. There’s nary conception of aerodynamic ratio pinch drones “[right now].”

The aircraft’s rocket-like, blended-wing creation eliminates nan request for further propellers and dense moving parts, improving aerodynamic ratio complete accepted quadcopters. By avoiding propellers that disrupt airflow complete nan wing, nan drone maintains a higher lift-to-drag ratio, reducing nan magnitude of thrust needed to enactment aloft and making guardant formation importantly much energy-efficient, nan laminitis told TechCrunch.

The first type of Airbound’s drone weighs 3.3 pounds and carries a payload of up to 2.2 pounds, and nan startup besides intends for its 2nd type to support a 6.6-pound payload while weighing conscionable 2.6 pounds itself.

A prototype of nan 2nd type is expected to beryllium fresh and flying by mid-next year, pinch accumulation targeted for nan first 4th of 2027, Pushp said.

“When you get into nan world of autonomy, logistics is conscionable a physics problem. It’s a crippled of ratio and weight. And truthful if you person a little weight than anyone other and a higher ratio than others, you win,” Pushp said.

He began moving connected Airbound during nan COVID-19 lockdown successful 2020, inspired by a video of Zipline, nan on-demand drone transportation company. He submitted an early prototype — made from 2D slices held together pinch toothpicks and tape, past sanded to lucifer a fiberglass assemblage — to a hackathon, wherever it earned a $500 grant. That acquisition prompted him to use to Y Combinator, though he was not accepted. Instead, he received a $1,000 assistance from nan 1517 Fund successful 2021, followed by a $25,000 cheque from Brand Capital and a $12,000 assistance from Emergent Ventures.

At 17, Pushp received a word expanse from Lightspeed, but waited until aft his 18th day to motion it. “That was nan first legally binding archive that I signed,” he recalled.

The craft packs lithium-ion batteries — alternatively of a commonly utilized lithium-polymer artillery pack. Lithium ion batteries typically person a rhythm life of 500 to 800 cycles, whereas lithium polymer lasts for astir 100–200 cycles, Pushp said.

“The biggest costs of operating these drones ends up being their artillery replacement costs,” he said.

The drone costs Airbound $2,000 to make and ₹24 (around $0.27) per delivery. The startup intends to trim nan transportation costs to beneath ₹5 (roughly $0.05) by nan extremity of 2026. It besides projects reaching a cardinal deliveries per time by nan mediate of 2027, and to execute that, it plans to summation its manufacturing capacity to complete 100 drones a day. This is up from nan startup’s existent one-drone-per-day accumulation complaint astatine its Bengaluru facility.

Airbound has started its first aviator programme pinch Bengaluru’s Narayana Health done which it will present aesculapian logistics for 3 months, aiming to complete 10 deliveries a time of aesculapian tests, humor samples, and different captious supplies.

However, Airbound besides targets different sectors including speedy commerce, nutrient deliveries, and “a fewer different smaller areas of last-mile” delivery, nan laminitis told TechCrunch.

Airbound besides plans to spell beyond India aft scaling to 1 cardinal deliveries per time and participate nan U.S. successful 3 years. Meanwhile, nan startup is besides successful talks pinch regulators including India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation to commencement its flights soon.

To date, Airbound has raised complete $10 cardinal successful full funding, and it has a squad of 50 people.

The latest information will thief standard its manufacturing capabilities and grow operations. The aviator programme will besides thief amended its work and trim costs to amended hole for broader marketplace take successful 2026, nan startup said.