Airbound, an Indian startup developing autonomous drones, raised $37 million in a Series A round led by Greenoaks, with participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, and Humba Ventures. The funding follows an $8.65 million seed round last year, bringing Airbound’s total raised to nearly $50 million.
The startup’s drones use a vertical-flight design to reduce weight and improve payload efficiency, aiming to undercut road transport costs. Its current TRT drone weighs 3.3 pounds and carries 2.2 pounds, while a next-gen model in development will weigh 6.6 pounds with an 11-pound capacity. Airbound has completed over 13,000 autonomous flights in Bengaluru and Guntur, including 1,000+ deliveries for Narayana Health, cutting transport times for medical samples from hours to minutes.
Airbound now plans a three-city drone network in Andhra Pradesh, targeting 10,000 daily flights for retail, e-commerce, and healthcare. Regulatory approvals, particularly for beyond visual line of sight operations, remain the primary hurdle before commercial revenue scales.
