New Delhi: Indian aerospace startup Airbound has raised $37 million in Series A funding and signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to build
a drone delivery network across three cities. The company says the network will eventually scale to 10,000 flights a day for retail, e-commerce and healthcare deliveries.
The funding round was led by Greenoaks, with participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed and Humba Ventures. Airbound, which started in 2023, has now raised close to $50 million in total. The company designs and manufactures its aircraft in India.
Read more: Andhra Pradesh plans 10,000 daily drone flights with Airbound ..
Airbound wants to cut the cost of aerial delivery
Airbound is working on lightweight autonomous aircraft aimed at carrying more payload compared with the weight of the aircraft itself.
Founder and CEO Naman Pushp said, “We believe in a world where all movement happens in the air. Not some of it. Not most of it. All of it.”
The company argues that traditional aircraft spend a large part of their energy carrying their own weight. Airbound is trying to change that equation by building smaller aircraft where the payload makes up a bigger share of the total flying weight.
The Series A money will be used for engineering, manufacturing and commercial expansion.
Read more: Medical drones fly 700+ times in Bengaluru with zero failures
Andhra Pradesh network could reach 10,000 flights a day
Airbound said its Andhra Pradesh project will connect three cities and support deliveries across healthcare, retail and e-commerce.
Pushp said India creates a tough test for low-cost delivery systems.
“The bar for delivery in India is high. The benchmark is 10 minutes to your doorstep, at an extremely low cost. That’s the complexity here,” he said.
Airbound has already completed more than 1,000 autonomous flights with Narayana Health, carrying diagnostic samples between healthcare facilities. The company said those flights recorded zero mission failures.
The larger plan is much more ambitious. Airbound eventually wants similar aircraft to carry freight and later passengers.
The Andhra Pradesh rollout will be the key test. Reaching 10,000 daily flights would require reliable aircraft, local infrastructure, regulatory support and tight operating costs at a scale rarely seen in Indian drone delivery projects.
