India’s Airbound bags $37M to take on trucks with rocket-like drones
Indian startup Airbound has raised $37 million in a Series A round led by Greenoaks, with backing from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed and Humba Ventures, as it seeks to make drone-based delivery as cheap as trucking. The three-year-old company builds vertical-flight, rocket-like drones designed to weigh less than the cargo they carry, aiming to close the cost gap that has kept aerial logistics from matching the scale of road transport.
The funding follows an $8.65 million seed round raised less than a year ago, taking Airbound's total raised to nearly $50 million. Its current drone, the TRT, weighs about 3.3 pounds and carries 2.2 pounds, with a larger successor in development expected to weigh 6.6 pounds and carry up to 11 pounds. The startup has flown more than 13,000 autonomous missions in Bengaluru and Guntur, including over 1,000 flights transporting diagnostic samples for Narayana Health, and has signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh state government to build a three-city drone network targeting 10,000 flights a day.
- Airbound raises $37M Series A led by Greenoaks for delivery drones
- Rocket-like drones aim for cost parity with truck transport
- Plans 10,000 daily flights across three Andhra Pradesh cities
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Airbound is an Indian startup that builds small, vertical-flying drones to deliver goods, positioning them as a cheaper alternative to lorries for short-haul logistics. Founded three years ago, the company has now raised $37 million in new funding, adding to money it raised in a seed round less than a year earlier.
The drones are unusual in that they are designed to weigh less than the cargo they carry, which the company says helps bring flying costs down closer to those of road transport. Airbound has already run thousands of test flights in Indian cities, including delivering medical samples for a hospital group, and has an agreement with a state government to expand the service further.
The story matters because delivery by drone has long been seen as too expensive and limited in scale to seriously compete with trucks. Airbound's approach, and the fresh investment behind it, is being watched as a test of whether that cost barrier can be overcome.