3 days ago

Airbound Raises $37 Million to Scale Autonomous Drone Manufacturing

Bengaluru-based aerospace startup Airbound has raised $37 million in Series A funding, marking a major step in its effort to commercialise autonomous drone delivery and build a large-scale aerial logistics network in India.

The round was led by Greenoaks, with participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed and Humba Ventures. The latest investment takes Airbound’s total capital raised since its 2023 launch to nearly $50 million. The company plans to deploy the fresh capital towards engineering, commercial-scale manufacturing and go-to-market expansion.

Founded by Naman Pushp, Airbound is developing lightweight autonomous aircraft designed to transport goods without relying on conventional road infrastructure. Its flagship TRT aircraft uses a blended-wing-body tailsitter configuration that takes off and lands vertically before transitioning into efficient horizontal flight. Airbound’s current specifications list an all-up weight of about 2.5 kg, payload of approximately 1 kg and a range of around 40 km.

The startup’s immediate opportunity lies in healthcare, e-commerce and last-mile logistics. Airbound has already completed more than 1,000 autonomous flights with Narayana Health, transporting diagnostic samples between healthcare facilities. Separately, the company has completed more than 13,000 autonomous flights overall, according to founder Naman Pushp.

A drone delivery network

Airbound is also working with the Andhra Pradesh government on a proposed three-city drone delivery network connecting Amaravati, Vijayawada and Guntur, with an eventual target of up to 10,000 flights a day across retail, e-commerce and healthcare applications.

The funding comes as Airbound seeks to move beyond technology demonstrations towards repeatable manufacturing and commercial deployment. The company operates a 43,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Bengaluru and keeps core aircraft development and production activities in-house.

Airbound’s larger ambition extends beyond delivery drones. Pushp has previously outlined a vision of making aerial transportation economically competitive with road-based logistics, while the company has indicated that its aircraft technology could eventually be applied to freight and passenger transportation.

“We believe in a world where all movement happens in the air. Not some of it. Not most of it. All of it,” Pushp said.

The next challenge, however, is not only manufacturing. Regulatory approvals for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations remain critical to deploying autonomous delivery networks at scale.

With fresh capital, an expanding manufacturing base and live healthcare deployments, Airbound is now attempting to turn India’s emerging drone-delivery ecosystem into a commercially scalable aerial logistics network.

By Subramanya Joshi