Airbound Raises $37M Series A to Build Low-Cost Drone Delivery Network

Indian autonomous drone startup Airbound has raised $37 million in a Series A funding round led by Greenoaks, with participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed and Humba Ventures.

The latest round comes less than a year after Airbound raised $8.65 million in seed funding and brings the company’s total capital raised to nearly $50 million.

Founded in 2023 by Naman Pushp, Founder and CEO of Airbound, the Bengaluru-based startup is developing autonomous drones designed to make aerial delivery cost-competitive with trucking.

Airbound’s approach focuses on building lightweight aircraft that can carry payloads heavier than their own weight. Its current TRT drone weighs around 3.3 pounds and carries approximately 2.2 pounds of payload, while the next version is expected to weigh around 6.6 pounds and carry up to 11 pounds.

The drones use a rocket-like, tail-sitter design that enables vertical takeoff and landing before transitioning to horizontal flight. The company plans to retain vertical takeoff and landing as it develops larger aircraft, reducing dependence on runways.

Airbound has completed more than 13,000 autonomous flights across Bengaluru and Guntur, including more than 1,000 flights transporting diagnostic samples for Narayana Health.

On the Narayana Health route, Airbound drones transport samples around 2.5 miles in approximately seven minutes, compared with three to five hours by truck when accounting for road-transport delays.

The company is also working with the Andhra Pradesh government on a proposed three-city drone delivery network targeting up to 10,000 flights per day across retail, e-commerce and healthcare applications.

Airbound designs and manufactures its aircraft at a 43,000-square-foot facility in Bengaluru and has more than 150 employees.

The company says regulation, particularly approvals for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations, remains one of the biggest challenges to scaling autonomous drone delivery networks in India.

Airbound is positioning itself as an aircraft manufacturer and technology provider rather than simply a delivery operator, with the ambition of building drones that could eventually be used by logistics networks across markets.

Company: Airbound

Region: India

Headquarters: Bengaluru

Funding: $37M

Round: Series A

Total Funding: Nearly $50M

Sector: Drones / Autonomous Logistics

Lead Investor: Greenoaks

Founder & CEO: Naman Pushp

Use of Funds: Scaling aircraft development, manufacturing and drone delivery infrastructure