Bengaluru CEO won $500 hackathon prize at 15, turned down US college offer, now runs $50 million startup

Naman Pushp, a 21-year-old entrepreneur from Bengaluru, is the founder and CEO of Airbound, an aerospace company focused on solving a problem he encountered during his teenage years. At 15, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pushp won $500 in a hackathon by entering a project called Open Drone. This early success helped him build his first prototype and led to his current success.

Pushp, who spent parts of his childhood in Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Malaysia, developed an interest in robotics from a young age. He even entered robotics competitions and engineering projects while still in school. Despite receiving a venture cheque from GradCapital when he was still a minor, Pushp chose to focus on developing drones and ultimately turned down an offer to attend Carnegie Mellon University.

Airbound's current aircraft, TRT, weighs 1.5 kg and can carry 1 kg of cargo, making drone delivery more cost-effective than traditional road transportation. The company's goal is to build a model that can carry a 5 kg payload, with plans to expand manufacturing. Airbound has already completed over 13,000 autonomous flights across Bengaluru and the Guntur region, including 1,000 flights for Narayana Health, which use the drones to transport medical samples between clinics and hospitals.

With further plans to connect Amaravati, Vijayawada, and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, Airbound aims to reach a target of 10,000 flights per day. The company is optimistic about manufacturing lightweight carbon-fiber aircraft that can be produced at scale. CEO Naman Pushp believes that "100 aircraft a day will start to feel very small."