Airbound founder Naman Pushp announced a $37 million Series A on X this week, saying the company wants a world where moving goods by air costs no more than moving them by truck. Greenoaks led the round. DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, and Humba Ventures also participated.
The financing comes less than a year after an $8.65 million seed and takes total capital to about $50 million. Airbound, based in Bengaluru and founded in 2023, will use the money to expand engineering, begin commercial-scale manufacturing, and push the aircraft into paid logistics work.
Pushp's argument is that flying has stayed expensive because aircraft are heavy relative to what they carry. Airbound builds tail-sitter drones that lift off vertically, then tilt into efficient forward flight. The current aircraft, called TRT, weighs about 3.3 pounds and carries roughly 2.2 pounds. A larger version in development is expected to weigh about 6.6 pounds and carry up to 11 pounds. The company wants later models to keep vertical takeoff so they never need runways.
The startup says it has completed more than 13,000 autonomous flights in Bengaluru and Guntur. One early commercial use is medical logistics: drones flying diagnostic samples for hospital network Narayana Health on a route of about 2.5 miles that takes seven minutes in the air and several hours by road.
Airbound has also signed an agreement with the government of Andhra Pradesh to connect three cities with a drone delivery network. The long-term target for that network is 10,000 flights a day across retail, e-commerce, and healthcare. Pushp published a company manifesto alongside the funding post, arguing that flight should become the default way things move rather than a premium alternative to trucks and buses.
The investor list mixes a growth firm known for concentrated bets with a large delivery company. DoorDash's participation is notable because last-mile operators have spent years testing drones without finding a cost structure that competes with vans. Airbound is trying to win on aircraft weight and energy use rather than on software alone.
The company is still early. Payload sizes remain small, and turning thousands of test flights into a daily multi-city network will require manufacturing, airspace approvals, and reliable ground handling. The Series A gives Pushp the capital to test whether those lightweight aircraft can close the cost gap he described on X.
