San Francisco, California & Bangalore, India – November 15, 2024; Airbound, a drone technology startup announced a $1.7 million seed round led by Lightspeed to build the world’s most efficient delivery drone. With its proprietary blended wing body tailsitter design, called TRT, Airbound aims to transform logistics, reducing delivery costs by two orders of magnitude compared to traditional options.

Historically, the drone delivery industry has faced challenges due to regulatory complexity and high per-mile costs, which have prevented drones from becoming the default solution for last-mile logistics. Airbound’s TRT design will be the lightest, safest, and most economically viable delivery drone, reducing the cost of deliveries to just a few cents.

“We are proud to have developed not only an industry-leading delivery drone, but also a highly efficient, scalable manufacturing process,” said Naman Pushp, Founder and CEO of Airbound. “We scrutinized every vehicle system to reduce weight, enhance safety and reliability, and maximize efficiency. We developed new methods to manufacture carbon fiber, which allow us to reduce the weight of our Airframe from 6 pounds to 400 grams. Our goal isn’t just to build a great drone—we want to create a world where delivery is essentially free”

The journey began as a high school project for Naman Pushp, who turned down an offer to study at Carnegie Mellon University to pursue his passion for drones. With early backing from gradCapital, he spent four years developing TRT, innovating on carbon composite manufacturing, aerostructures, and advanced control systems. Today, Airbound’s drone is over three times lighter than conventional alternatives, with four times the aerodynamic efficiency, significantly reducing upfront and operating costs.

Airbound’s efficiency-first strategy sets it apart from competitors more focused on speed, adapting existing drones for limited market segments.

Airbound’s initial focus is on medical deliveries, particularly routine supply deliveries such as transporting blood samples from health centers to testing labs. Once the system is proven at scale, Airbound plans to expand into other applications including food and grocery delivery, where reducing logistics costs can significantly enhance profitability. In total, the company’s drones have already spanned thousands of kilometers.

Hemant Mohapatra, partner, Lightspeed commented: “Drones are the future of deliveries and we are highly optimistic about the potential of this game-changing technology in revolutionizing logistics. Our investment in Airbound aligns with our mission of backing founders who can identify market gaps and pioneer path-breaking products to address those. We are incredibly excited to partner with Naman, confident that their innovation will redefine delivery logistics.”

The timing is ideal for Airbound’s technology. Many of the major regulatory and technological
bottlenecks have been addressed, and public enthusiasm around the technology is rising. The only remaining challenge has been making the technology cost effective—a problem Airbound has solved.