Bengaluru-based drone startup Airbound has raised $37 million in Series A funding, marking a major milestone for founder Naman Pushp, who first began building drones as a teenager during the Covid-19 lockdown. The latest funding round, led by Greenoaks, takes Airbound’s total funding to nearly $50 million.
The three-year-old aerospace startup is developing autonomous aircraft designed to transport goods through the air. It now plans to expand its engineering, manufacturing and commercial operations as it looks to make drone-based logistics a larger part of India’s delivery ecosystem.
How Did Airbound Begin?
Airbound’s story began during the 2020 lockdown, when Pushp was 15 and schools were shut.
With more time at home, he returned to his interest in robotics and started building a drone. The project, called Open Drone, was taken to a hackathon, where it won a $500 prize.
Pushp reinvested the prize money into the project and continued developing the technology.
Six years later, that early experiment has evolved into Airbound, which was founded in 2023 and is now backed by some major technology investors.
Pushp, now 21, chose to pursue the startup instead of attending Carnegie Mellon University after receiving admission.
Who Invested $37 Million In Airbound?
The $37 million Series A round was led by Greenoaks.
Other investors participating in the round include DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed and Humba Ventures.
The fresh funding takes Airbound’s total capital raised since its launch to nearly $50 million. The company had previously raised an $8.65 million seed round.
Airbound plans to use the new capital to expand aircraft engineering, build commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities and strengthen its go-to-market operations.
What Does Airbound’s Drone Do?
Airbound is developing lightweight autonomous aircraft for logistics and delivery.
Its aircraft use a vertical take-off and landing, or VTOL, design. The drone can take off vertically and then transition into forward flight, combining the flexibility of a helicopter-like take-off with the efficiency of fixed-wing flight.
The company says its approach is designed to make aerial transportation cheaper and more efficient.
Airbound’s current aircraft weighs about 3.3 pounds and can carry around 2.2 pounds of payload. The next version is expected to weigh about 6.6 pounds while carrying up to 11 pounds.
How Is Airbound Already Using Its Drones?
Airbound has already completed more than 13,000 autonomous flights in Bengaluru and Guntur.
Healthcare has been one of its earliest applications.
The startup has completed more than 1,000 flights for Narayana Health, transporting diagnostic samples between healthcare facilities. A drone can cover one such route in minutes, compared with several hours by road in some cases.
The company now wants to expand into e-commerce, food delivery and quick commerce.
What Is Airbound Planning In Andhra Pradesh?
Airbound has signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to develop a drone delivery network connecting Amaravati, Vijayawada and Guntur.
The long-term target is as many as 10,000 flights a day, covering areas such as healthcare, retail and e-commerce.
However, scaling such a network will depend heavily on regulatory approvals, particularly permissions for beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations.
What Is The Bigger Goal?
Airbound’s ambition goes beyond delivering packages.
The company is developing progressively larger aircraft and eventually wants to build vehicles capable of carrying people.
For now, however, the focus remains on cargo. By proving that autonomous aircraft can safely and economically transport goods, Airbound hopes to build the technology and operational experience needed for larger aircraft in the future.
From a teenager building a drone during lockdown to a startup raising $37 million, Airbound’s journey reflects the growing ambitions of India’s deeptech and aerospace sector.
The next challenge is turning that funding and technology into a commercially scalable drone network and proving that more goods can move through the skies, rather than on roads.
