# Alteon raises $2.5M for aircraft that fly a year without landing

> Founder Samay Sanghvi said the pre-seed round, led by Lachy Groom, will fund offshore testing of dynamic-soaring aircraft meant to stay aloft for more than a year.

- Publication: Go Big News
- By Go Big News Staff (Staff News)
- Category: Startups
- Published: 2026-09-03T03:26:40.084+00:00
- Canonical: https://www.gobignews.com/startups/alteon-raises-2-5m-for-aircraft-that-fly-a-year-without-landing

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[Alteon](https://www.alteonenergy.co) has raised a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by investor Lachy Groom to build autonomous aircraft designed to stay airborne for more than a year without landing. Founder Samay Sanghvi announced the round in a post on X on September 1, saying the planes "would take off in 2026 and land in 2027."

Together Fund participated in the round, according to the post and to TechCrunch, which first reported the financing. TechCrunch also reported that Emergent Ventures and 1517 backed the company earlier.

The Bengaluru company builds small fixed-wing aircraft with a wingspan of about 3 meters, designed to draw energy from wind shear above the ocean using dynamic soaring, a maneuver in which an aircraft repeatedly crosses between layers of air moving at different speeds. Albatrosses use the same technique to cover long distances at sea, and Alteon's stated goal is an aircraft that flies "for months, not hours."

Sanghvi, who is 20, started building aircraft in 2023 after finishing high school and formally founded Alteon in 2025, according to TechCrunch. The company now employs about 20 people in a 10,000-square-foot facility in Bengaluru, builds four to five aircraft a week, and says it has flown more than 200 test flights in the past 30 days. In a recent autonomous test over the Bay of Bengal, an Alteon aircraft completed seven O-shaped soaring cycles at more than 62 mph while flying within a meter of the water.

The company plans to use the funding for offshore testing as it works toward autonomous dynamic soaring without propulsion. Its first target application is maritime surveillance, giving governments real-time visibility over their waters. Alteon is hiring; the announcement linked to the company's careers page.

"Ambitious problems are always going to come with risks," Groom told TechCrunch.

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## Companies in this story

- Alteonenergy: https://www.gobignews.com/company/alteonenergyco