Airbound Bags $37 Mn From Greenoaks, DoorDash To Scale Drone Manufacturing

Bengaluru-based drone startup Airbound has secured a substantial $37 million in Series A funding from investment firm Greenoaks, alongside participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, and Humba Ventures. The additional capital will assist the company in expanding its engineering capabilities, large-scale manufacturing, and go-to-market strategies.

With this latest funding, Airbound's total funding since its inception in 2023 has reached nearly $50 million, including a previous $8.65 million round led by Groom, Humba Ventures, Lightspeed, and executives from Tesla, Anduril, and Ather Energy.

Founded by Naman Pushp, Airbound specializes in the design and manufacturing of autonomous drones that can transport goods. These drones feature a blended-wing-body tail-sitter configuration, enabling vertical takeoff and landing, followed by horizontal flight. The company's flagship TRT drone weighs approximately 2.5 kg, carries a payload of around 1 kg, and boasts a range of about 40 km. Airbound claims that its carbon-fibre composite drone requires significantly less thrust than traditional quadcopters.

The startup's flight control system, RUDRA, enables a single operator to manage over 100 drones simultaneously. Currently, Airbound manufactures about one drone per day, with each delivery costing around ₹24, aiming to reduce costs to below ₹5 through scaling. The latest funding will be pivotal in testing whether Airbound can achieve these cost reductions while transitioning from limited healthcare applications to a commercially viable, high-frequency delivery network.

Airbound initially positions itself as an aerospace startup but primarily focuses on autonomous drone deliveries in healthcare, ecommerce, and retail. The company envisions a future where all movement occurs in the air, with its larger aircraft capable of transporting freight and eventually passengers. Pushp expressed a belief in a world where all movement happens in the air, noting that Airbound's aircraft architecture could eventually carry a passenger or 100 kg of cargo.

The startup is currently collaborating with healthcare chain Narayana Health, having completed over 1,000 autonomous flights without any mission failures. This collaboration has reduced transportation times from hours to minutes. Additionally, Airbound is set to develop a drone delivery network connecting three cities in Andhra Pradesh and aims to scale it to 10,000 flights per day.

The network will cater to healthcare, ecommerce, and retail deliveries, a project that was initiated through an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh Drone Corporation in June, targeting 10,000 daily flights by the end of 2026.