Durchbruch für Airbound: 1,7 Millionen Dollar Finanzierung für ultraleichte Lieferdrohnen
Abgesehen von Entführungen und Diebstählen ist eines der größten Probleme bei den heutigen Lieferdrohnen ihr Gewicht und die hohen Kosten für solche Lieferungen. Hier kommt Airbound ins Spiel, ein Unternehmen, das daran arbeitet, das Gewicht der beteiligten Hardware um das 30-fache zu reduzieren, was Lieferkosten von „nur ein paar Cent“ ermöglichen würde, sobald sein Design in großen Stückzahlen produziert wird. Das Startup ist nun endlich aus der Anonymität hervorgetreten und hat glücklicherweise eine Startkapitalrunde von 1,7 Millionen US-Dollar abgeschlossen. Auf der Liste der Geldgeber stehen verschiedene anonyme Business Angels sowie Lightspeed und gradCapital.
Laut der offiziellen Pressemitteilung kann das Unternehmen mit seinem Blended-Wing-Body-Tailsitter-Design (TRT) „die Lieferkosten im Vergleich zu herkömmlichen Optionen um zwei Größenordnungen senken“ und gleichzeitig die sicherste und leichteste Lieferdrohne auf dem Markt anbieten. Das Design, das Airbound bereits in begrenztem Umfang einsetzt, ist dreimal leichter als die Konkurrenz und bietet eine vierfache Verbesserung der aerodynamischen Effizienz.
"Wir haben jedes Fahrzeugsystem genau unter die Lupe genommen, um das Gewicht zu reduzieren, die Sicherheit und Zuverlässigkeit zu erhöhen und die Effizienz zu maximieren. Dabei haben wir neue Methoden zur Herstellung von Kohlefaser entwickelt, die es uns ermöglichen, das Gewicht der Drohnenstruktur von 6 Pfund auf nur 400 Gramm zu reduzieren. Unser Ziel ist es nicht nur, eine großartige Drohne zu bauen – wir wollen eine Welt schaffen, in der Lieferungen im Wesentlichen kostenlos sind.“
verrät Naman Pushp, Gründer und CEO von Airbound.
Derzeit setzt Airbound die TRT-Drohne für medizinische Lieferungen ein, insbesondere für den Transport von Blutproben zu Testlabors. Der nächste Schritt wird die Lieferung von Lebensmitteln sein, doch wann dies genau geschehen wird, bleibt abzuwarten. Das Unternehmen gab außerdem an, dass seine Drohnen bisher bereits „Tausende von Kilometern“ geflogen sind.
Wer auf der Suche nach einer Drohne ist, kann die DJI Neo derzeit bei Amazon für 167 Euro erwerben.
Quelle(n)
Stockwood Strategy (via email)
Airbound Secures $1.7M to Make Drone Delivery Economically Viable Everywhere
Lightspeed, gradCapital and prominent angels back world-leading efficient drone technology
San Francisco, California & Bangalore, India - November 14, 2024; Airbound, a drone technology startup, today 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.
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About Airbound
Airbound is a drone delivery company focused on building the next-generation of drones that can reduce the cost of the last-mile by over two orders of magnitude. They're solving key technological bottlenecks to condense 30kgs of hardware into 1kg, improving safety, scalability, and operating cost. For more information please visit www.airbound.co or follow via LinkedIn and X
About Lightspeed
Lightspeed is a global multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Affirm, Acceldata, Carta, Cato Networks, Darwinbox, Epic Games, Faire, Innovaccer, Guardant Health, Mulesoft, Navan, Netskope, Nutanix, Physics Wallah, Razorpay, Rubrik, Sharechat, Snap, OYO Rooms, Ultima Genomics, Zepto and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $25B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia. www.lsip.com
