Airbound secures $1.7 million to make drone delivery economically viable everywhere
Lightspeed, gradCapital and prominent angel investors back cutting-edge drone technology
San Francisco, California and Bangalore, India – November 14, 2024; Airboundairbound, a drone technology startup, today announced a $1.7 million funding round led by Lightspeed to build the world's most efficient delivery drone. Through its proprietary blended wing concept, called TRT, Airbound aims to transform logistics by reducing delivery costs by two orders of magnitude compared to traditional options.
Historically, the drone delivery industry has faced challenges related to regulatory complexity and high costs per mile, which has prevented drones from becoming the default solution for last-mile logistics. Airbound's TRT will be the lightest, safest and most economically viable delivery drone, reducing the cost of deliveries to just pennies.
“We are proud to have developed not only an industry-leading delivery drone, but also a highly efficient and scalable manufacturing process,” said Naman Pushp, Founder and CEO of Airbound. “We scrutinized every system in the vehicle to reduce weight, improve safety and reliability, and maximize efficiency. We developed new methods of manufacturing carbon fiber, which allowed us “To reduce our airframe weight from 6 pounds to 400 grams. Our goal is not just to build a great drone, we want to create a world where shipping is virtually free.”
The journey began as a high school project for Naman Pushp, who turned down an offer to study at Carnegie Mellon University to pursue his passion for drones. With initial support from gradCapital, he spent four years developing TRT, innovating carbon composite manufacturing, aerostructures and advanced control systems. Today, Airbound's drone is three times lighter than conventional solutions, with four times greater aerodynamic efficiency, significantly reducing initial and operating costs.
Airbound's efficiency-focused strategy sets it apart from its more speed-focused competitors, which are adapting existing drones for limited market segments.
Airbound initially focuses on medical deliveries, particularly routine deliveries such as transporting blood samples between health centers and testing laboratories. Once the system is proven at scale, Airbound plans to expand to other applications, including food and grocery delivery, where reducing logistics costs can significantly improve profitability. In total, the company's drones have already traveled thousands of kilometers.
Hemant Mohapatra, partner at Lightspeed, commented: “Drones are the future of deliveries and we are very optimistic about the potential of this game-changing technology that revolutionizes logistics. Our investment in Airbound is in line with our mission, which is to support founders who can identify gaps in the market and develop revolutionary products to address them. We are very excited to partner with Naman, confident that their innovation will redefine delivery logistics.
The timing is perfect for Airbound’s technology. Many of the major regulatory and technological bottlenecks have been resolved
regulatory and technological issues have been resolved, and public enthusiasm for this technology continues to grow. The only challenge left was making the technology cost-effective, a problem Airbound solved.
Airbound is a drone delivery company focused on building the next generation of drones capable of reducing the cost of the last mile by more than two orders of magnitude. It solves key technology bottlenecks to condense 30 kg of material into 1 kg, improving security, scalability and operating costs. For further information, please visit www.airbound.co or follow us on LinkedIn et X
Lightspeed is a global, multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating innovations and disruptive trends in the enterprise, consumer, healthcare and fintech industries. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has supported hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies around the world, including Affirm, Acceldata, Carta, Cato Networks, Darwinbox, Epic Games, Faire, Innovaccer, Guardant Health, Mulesoft, Navan, Netskope, Nutanix, Physics Wallah, Razorpay, Rubrik, Sharechat, Snap, OYO Rooms, Ultima Genomics, Zepto, and many more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $25 billion in assets under management on the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the United States, Europe, India, Israel and Southeast Asia. East. www.lsip.com
