Indian autonomous flying drone startup Airbound has completed a $37 million Series A funding round, aiming to eventually bring the cost of drone air freight down to levels comparable to road trucks. The three-year-old company has raised nearly $50 million in total funding, less than a year after its $8.65 million seed round last year.
Tail-first design, lightweight for cargo
The founder Pusp's core idea is to create vertical takeoff and landing drones with a weight lower than their payload: the current TRT weighs about 1.5kg and can carry 1kg, while the next generation will weigh 3kg and have a maximum payload of 5kg. It uses a tail-first design similar to rockets, taking off vertically upright, then switching to horizontal flight, landing, and returning to an upright position, avoiding the need for runways.
Airbound has completed over 13,000 autonomous flights in Bangalore and other locations. The next step is to build a delivery network connecting three cities in Andhra Pradesh, with an average of 10,000 flights per day, serving retail, e-commerce, and healthcare. Pusp positions the company as the "Boeing of drones," providing services for others rather than operating its own shipping. However, regulatory restrictions make it difficult for them to monetize flights, and the team of more than 150 employees currently has almost no revenue—challenging trucks with drones, the technology has taken off, but the business still needs to be realized.
