Airbound Raises $37M to Compete with Trucking Using Rocket-Like Drones
Indian autonomous drone startup Airbound has raised $37 million in Series A funding to scale its drone delivery network and challenge traditional trucking. The round was led by Greenoaks with participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, and Humba Ventures. This brings the three-year-old startup’s total funding to nearly $50 million, following an $8.65 million seed round less than a year ago.
Redesigning Drones for Cost Parity with Trucking
Airbound argues that drones can move certain goods faster and cheaper than road vehicles. However, drone delivery has yet to match the scale and versatility of trucking. The startup aims to close this gap by redesigning its aircraft to become more competitive with ground transportation.
Conventional aircraft spend significant energy carrying their own weight rather than payload, making flight expensive for smaller loads. Airbound’s solution involves building vertical-flight drones that weigh less than the cargo they carry, according to founder and CEO Naman Pushp.
TRT Drone Specifications
The startup’s current drone, called TRT, weighs approximately 3.3 pounds and carries around 2.2 pounds of payload. Its next version, currently under development, is expected to weigh about 6.6 pounds while carrying up to 11 pounds.
Airbound employs a rocket-like, tail-sitter design that takes off and lands vertically before transitioning to horizontal flight. Pushp stated the company intends to maintain vertical takeoff and landing capabilities even as it develops larger aircraft, avoiding dependence on runways.
“We want to build towards a world where everything has cost parity with trucking,” Pushp said.
Successful Drone Flights and Healthcare Partnerships
Founded in 2023, Airbound has completed more than 13,000 autonomous flights across Bengaluru and Guntur in southern India. This includes over 1,000 flights with the Indian hospital network Narayana Health, where drones transport diagnostic samples between healthcare facilities.
On the Narayana route, a single active drone flies diagnostic samples about 2.5 miles in approximately seven minutes. The same samples can take three to five hours by truck when accounting for the time spent waiting for enough samples to bundle for road transport.
The partnership is expanding to include Narayana’s new Banashankari hospital in Bengaluru, which was designed without an on-site diagnostic lab or blood bank. Instead, it will rely entirely on Airbound’s drone delivery network to connect with centralized facilities.
Ambitious Three-City Drone Network
Airbound has signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh state government to create a drone delivery network connecting three cities. The eventual target is 10,000 flights daily for retail, e-commerce, and healthcare deliveries.
This daily flight target will require between 250 and 1,000 aircraft, depending on route lengths, though Pushp expects the number to be closer to 250. The agreement does not involve a government contract or subsidy. The state government is working with Airbound on the regulatory framework needed to enable the network, with the startup expecting to generate business from companies using it for deliveries.
The Boeing Role in Aerial Logistics
Indian competitors including Skye Air Mobility and TSAW Drones are building aerial logistics businesses, while others like Garuda Aerospace have explored delivery use cases. However, Pushp argues that Airbound wants to build the aircraft that other logistics networks could eventually use, rather than just becoming the largest delivery operator.
“That’s the Boeing role — the aircraft airlines everywhere rely on, not the airline itself,” he said.
Manufacturing and Regulatory Challenges
Airbound designs and manufactures its aircraft in a 43,000-square-foot facility in Bengaluru, keeping airframe and core systems work in-house. While Pushp declined to disclose production capacity or how many aircraft the startup has built, he stated manufacturing would not be the bottleneck as Airbound scales.
The bigger bottleneck is regulation, particularly securing approvals for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. This certification allows drones to fly beyond an operator’s direct sight and is critical for operating delivery networks at scale.
These regulatory constraints have limited Airbound’s ability to turn flights into meaningful commercial revenue. Despite having a team of more than 150 employees, the startup remains broadly pre-revenue.
“The goal is to be a giant in a few decades, not to make revenue as soon as we can,” Pushp said.
The Future of Drone Delivery Networks
Airbound continues pushing toward a future where drone delivery achieves cost parity with trucking. With significant funding, strategic partnerships, and a focus on building aircraft for the broader logistics industry, the startup is positioning itself as a key player in India’s evolving delivery landscape. As regulatory frameworks develop and manufacturing scales, Airbound’s rocket-like drones could become a common sight moving goods across Indian cities.
