Indian startup Airbound has secured $37 million in new funding to accelerate its vision of making air delivery as efficient and affordable as road transport. The Series A round was led by Greenoaks, with participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, and Humba Ventures, bringing the company's total funding to nearly $50 million in less than a year.
Founded in 2023, Airbound is developing autonomous drones built around a tail-sitter design that lifts off vertically, then shifts into forward flight. The company says this approach helps reduce energy spent carrying the aircraft itself, improving efficiency for smaller payloads.
Its current model, TRT, weighs about 3.3 pounds and carries around 2.2 pounds of cargo. A larger version under development is expected to weigh roughly 6.6 pounds and transport up to 11 pounds. Airbound says the goal is to keep vertical takeoff and landing as it scales, avoiding runway dependence.
The startup reports more than 13,000 autonomous flights across Bengaluru and Guntur, including over 1,000 flights supporting Narayana Health. In that workflow, diagnostic samples travel about 2.5 miles in roughly seven minutes, far faster than road transport, which can take hours when bundling delays are included.
Airbound is also expanding its healthcare network in Bengaluru and planning a three-city drone corridor in Andhra Pradesh, with a long-term target of 10,000 flights per day for retail, e-commerce, and medical logistics. The company is working with state authorities on the regulatory framework needed for broader operations, especially beyond visual line of sight approvals.
With manufacturing based in Bengaluru and more than 150 employees, Airbound says the next phase is about building the aerial infrastructure others can use. If successful, this model could help redefine how goods move across cities in the years ahead.
