Drone Startup Airbound Raise Funding From Lightspeed

Airbound Raise Funding: Drone technology startup Airbound has raised $1.7 million in a seed round led by Lightspeed, with additional participation from gradCapital and other angel investors.

With the funding, the startup aims to transform logistics, reducing delivery costs by two orders of magnitude compared to traditional options.

Airbound Raise Funding, Aims To Expand Into Medical Deliveries

Founded in 2020 by Naman Pushp, Airbound is a drone delivery company focused on building next-generation drones that can reduce last-mile delivery costs by over two orders of magnitude. 

The company claims to overcome key technological bottlenecks, condensing 30 kg of hardware into 1 kg, which improves safety, scalability, and operational costs. Its proprietary blended wing body tailsitter design, known as TRT, aims to transform logistics.

Airbound said it will use the seed funds to deploy its R&D efforts and venture into medical deliveries, specifically routine deliveries such as transporting blood samples from health centres to testing labs, founder Naman Push told ET. The startup plans to go live with its product in early 2025.

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Challenges Faced By The Startup

Airbound also highlighted that the drone delivery industry has faced challenges due to regulatory complexity and high per-mile costs, which have prevented drones from becoming the default solution for last-mile logistics.

The startup claims that its TRT design will be the lightest, safest, and most economically viable delivery drone, reducing the cost of deliveries to just a few cents.

Founder Naman Pushp, who began this journey as a high school project, spent four years developing the drone. Pushp innovated in carbon composite manufacturing and aerostructures, creating a drone that is over three times lighter than conventional alternatives, with four times the aerodynamic efficiency, significantly reducing upfront and operating costs.

Note, every vehicle system is carefully inspected by Airbound in order to minimise weight, improve safety and dependability, and optimise efficiency. By using advanced carbon fibre production techniques, the airframe’s weight has been lowered from six pounds to just 400 grams.

Airbound faces competition from Red Wing and Tech Eagle in India, as well as Wing and Zipline worldwide.

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