Airbound raises $37 mn; DoorDash makes India investment debut

BENGALURU: Airbound has raised $37 million led by investment firm Greenoaks to expand manufacturing and build a three-city drone delivery network in Andhra Pradesh. The round also saw participation from US food-delivery company DoorDash, angel investor Lachy Groom, venture capital firm Lightspeed and early-stage investor Humba Ventures. The Bengaluru aerospace startup has raised nearly $50 million since 2023.Founder and CEO Naman Pushp told TOI the money would fund engineering, production and the development of aircraft capable of carrying heavier payloads. Asked about Airbound’s earlier target of manufacturing 100 aircraft a day, Pushp said that would eventually appear modest.“In the grand scheme of things, 100 aircraft a day will start to feel very small,” he said. “We really want to get to a world where the rate at which we’re producing aircraft is comparable, if not exceeding, the rate at which we produce cars and scooters.”Airbound did not disclose its current production or provide a timeline for that ambition. It currently operates the TRT, a 1.5 kg aircraft capable of carrying a 1 kg payload. A 5 kg-payload model is next on its roadmap.The company said it has completed more than 1,000 autonomous flights with Narayana Health with “zero mission failures.” Pushp said the flights remain supervised but count as autonomous when an operator does not intervene. The service handles up to 20 flights daily on one clinic-to-hospital route.“Narayana has fully replaced its operations which involved ground transport. We handle all the movement of blood samples from that clinic to the hospital,” he said. The paid service is continuing, although Airbound classifies it as an R&D service rather than formal commercial activity.In Andhra Pradesh, Airbound plans to connect Amravati, Vijayawada and Guntur, and eventually reach 10,000 flights a day. Pushp clarified that the state government is not a customer. It is helping Airbound create a mesh network of ground observers to keep drone flights within visual line of sight. Private companies will use the network.“We want to make this work with private players because that shows the technology can stand on its own feet,” Pushp said.He said Airbound’s central bet is redesigning aircraft around carbon fibre to reduce weight. “If your aircraft is not mass-manufacturable, if your aircraft is not efficient, you will not have good unit economics,” he said.Get the latest Business News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.