Bengaluru startup Alteon raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round led by solo investor Lachy Groom to develop small, fixed-wing autonomous aircraft capable of staying airborne for over a year by extracting energy from ocean winds. The company, founded by 20-year-old Samay Sanghvi in 2025, plans to use dynamic soaring—a technique albatrosses employ—to harvest wind shear above the ocean’s surface. The aircraft will initially target maritime surveillance for governments, with a three-meter wingspan design that climbs and turns through faster-moving air to gain energy.
Alteon has not yet proven sustained flight using harvested wind energy but completed a recent test over the Bay of Bengal where its autonomous aircraft autonomously completed seven O-shaped cycles at over 62 mph, flying within one meter of the water’s surface. The next milestone is "energy-neutral dynamic soaring," where the aircraft would fly continuously with propulsion off, relying solely on wind energy. Experts note the technical challenges, including turbulence, waves, and unpredictable local wind shear, but acknowledge the underlying physics is sound.
The startup, now with 20 employees and a 10,000-square-foot facility, has conducted over 200 test flights in the past 30 days and builds four to five aircraft weekly for testing. Groom emphasized the high risk but expressed confidence in Sanghvi’s team to solve the challenges.
