$5 million pre-series A fundraising.
“The aspiration is to push these (vehicles) to as many global markets as possible,” cofounder Pranjal Mehta said. “Initially, the ones (markets) that we’re targeting are similar in geography and diaspora, as India itself. This includes Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the southern Americas. And with time, we would like to launch this product into the American and Western European markets.”
He said commercialising these technologies is also a function of certification and, as the company is getting closer to rolling out its vehicle, it is figuring out what are the certifications required to commercialise the products in various global markets.
“So far, we’ve limited our engagement with governments in Singapore and India. And going forward, we will be engaging with the Middle Eastern governments,” Mehta said.
The funding will help bolster hiring, advance R&D, and continue to gain airworthiness provision and initiate certification for its products, the company said.
This round was led by deep-tech venture capital firm Speciale Invest and EV/Climate-focussed fund Micelio. A consortium of investors including Naval Ravikant, 3one4 Capital, UTEC (University of Tokyo Edge Capital), Anicut Capital, Infoedge-backed Redstart Labs, EaseMyTrip cofounder Prashant Pitti, Thought Ventures, Java Capital and Firstcheque.vc also participated in the round.
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Founded in 2017 and launched in 2019, the company aspires to build the world’s most compact flying taxi, called the e200, for passengers, as well as cargo transport that could help reduce congestion on the roads and emissions from ground transport, and lower the risk of road accidents.
Through the pandemic, however, the company found other use cases that it is looking to ramp up. While Satya Chakravarthy, another cofounder, said the priority is still urban commuting, with drone regulations easing up, he said the company saw early revenue generation potential in the cargo segment as the certification for urban mobility involves a significant chunk of time.
“As far as the medical purposes are concerned, state governments can pick up these activities because health is a state subject,” he said. “In places like hilly terrains or places like Kerala where they have backwaters and hilly terrain or wherever there are terrains that are not very good for terrestrial commute, these kinds of aerial vehicles will come in very handy. In the context of Covid, it can be used for distributing vaccines and reaching out to the nooks and corners of the country.”
The company has tested a scaled-down prototype and expects to have its first cargo plane ready as early as February 2023. A passenger version is expected by December 2024.
