The Bengaluru-based deeptech trend is gaining momentum with Airbound, a drone delivery company, set to raise a large amount of capital. The firm will raise about $30 million in a new round of financing that will be led by Greenoaks. The round is also planned to involve some of the important existing investors, especially of Lightspeed Venture Partners, among other investors that have shown trust in the technological vision of the startup. This large capital raise will be a quick acceleration of the growth of Airbound since it comes right after the recent seed round of the company, which raised $8.65 million in October.

Core focus and seed funding round

Airbound was founded by a young founder, Naman Pushp, in 2023, at the age of 20. The founder is driving the course of the company in the competitive drone technology industry. The company can be characterized as deeptech-first, but the main direction is advanced aerospace engineering. Airbound is in the process of developing autonomous logistics aircraft based on a tail-sitter, blended-wing-body design. This particular design decision is designed to effectively introduce the performance of vertical takeoff and the high effectiveness of forward-flight to the best of their ability, representing a performance that is optimally effective.

These aircraft are built with a focus on durability and efficiency, using carbon fibre as the major construction material. In order to ensure high quality control and control the cost of production, the company has implemented the strategy of producing some of the most important elements, like its propellers, within the company. This vertical integration emphasizes how Pushp is firmly committed to the fundamental principles of aerospace engineering, in which he has been engaged since he was as young as 15 years of age when he started working with drone technology.

The last seed round, which closed in October, featured the support of a distinguished list of investors, such as the cofounder of Physical Intelligence, Lachy Groom, Humba Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, as well as senior executives of large industry participants, such as Tesla, Anduril, and Ather Energy. Although the development of the new round is public, Lightspeed and Airbound have not given any official comment on the reported funding.

Strategic logistics and focus on the healthcare vertical

Although Airbound has focused its operations so far in the field of healthcare logistics, which is highly specialized, the firm has planned to diversify its sector widely. The startup is projected to increase its services to include a myriad of other industries by the year 2026 and surpass medical supply delivery. 

One of the long-term objectives of the company that is crucial is to one day incorporate its drone delivery services in massive logistics platforms, specifically referring to the ONDC (Open Networks to Digital Commerce) framework. The proposed integration would give clients utilizing such platforms the freedom of selecting between traditional ground-delivery services and the faster, aerial drone delivery services, the choice of which would depend, in the first place, on the following factors: urgency, price, and the preferred delivery speed.

The healthcare vertical focus has already led to a major commercial engagement that will be critical in offering the startup the much-needed validation and the chance to test in the real world. In the previous month, Airbound established a partnership with Narayana Health, a large healthcare institution, to begin the launch of drone-delivered delivery of vital medicines and life-saving medical supplies. The partnership itself is specifically aimed at addressing some of the long-standing logistics problems observed in not only highly populated cities but also in less reachable rural communities, where the conventional methods of delivering goods tend to be plagued by significant delays, traffic jams, and overcharged operational expenses.

Under this current partnership, Airbound has already initiated a pilot program that lasts three months to implement with Narayana Health. This pilot is aimed at making a difficult schedule of ten medical deliveries in a day. The deliveries address a broad spectrum of perishable products, including valuable blood samples, diagnostic test kits, and other necessary medical products. The program will serve as a demonstrative prototype of one of the most operationally intensive delivery apps on the market that will help demonstrate the advantages of drone technology in terms of speed, reliability, and cost-efficiency to the highly specific sector of healthcare logistics.

Conclusion

The $30 million funding round, led by Greenoaks, is a good sign of investor confidence in the underlying deeptech model of Airbound and how it can fundamentally transform the logistics industry, beginning with healthcare. The trend of the company reflects the general trends in venture capital, as companies increasingly implement specific efforts, including the recently announced India Ascends platform by Lightspeed, that aim to identify and fund young entrepreneurs in more complex, frontier technologies, like AI, space, robotics, climate, biotech, energy, and defense technology.

The inflow of capital will contribute to the further growth of Airbound in terms of technology and the blistering growth of the sector, which will guarantee the startup its leading role in the market of autonomous logistics aircraft and its entitlement to provide a quick and efficient option for aerial deliveries worldwide.