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Hardware startup Airbound, which develops high-efficiency drone aircraft, on Monday said it raised $8.65 million in seed funding to expand its manufacturing operations. It also announced a partnership with Narayana Health, one of India’s largest hospital networks, to deliver medical supplies by drone at a cost of about one cent per delivery.
The startup’s blended-wing aircraft design promises to transform logistics economics in regions where traditional infrastructure remains absent or inadequate. The collaboration with Narayana Health will run for three months, during which the drone company will execute 10 daily deliveries of diagnostic tests, biological samples and urgent medical supplies.
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Airbound’s seed round was led by Lachy Groom, co-founder of Physical Intelligence. Humba Ventures and Lightspeed also joined the round, along with senior leaders from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), SpaceX, and Anduril Industries, who contributed additional funding, Airbound said.
With the new seed round, Airbound said its total funding now exceeds $10 million, following a prior raise in late 2024.
“We are grateful to our incoming and current investors for supporting our vision to make the cost of delivery negligible,” Airbound founder and CEO Naman Pushp said in the company’s statement. “The healthcare sector represents the perfect testing ground for our technology because it demands both reliability and efficiency.”
The medical logistics pilot provides Airbound with both regulatory pathways and real-world validation in an environment where failure carries significant consequences.
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“Our partnership with Airbound allows us to pilot a promising technology that could significantly improve the speed and reliability of medical deliveries,” Narayana Health founder and Chair Devi Shetty said in Airbound’s statement. “This initiative reflects our commitment to leveraging technology to better serve patients, particularly in areas where timely access to critical diagnostics and supplies can make a life-saving difference.”
Airbound’s aircraft uses a blended wing body paired with a vertical takeoff tail-sitter system, a design that combines the lift efficiency of fixed-wing flight with the flexibility of rotor-based operation, according to the company. This configuration supports vertical liftoff and landing without the drag penalties often seen in multi-rotor or tilt-rotor aircraft.
The company said it also engineered a carbon fiber fabrication process that allows continuous production of airframes, helping to scale manufacturing faster than conventional aerospace builds. This efficiency in both aerodynamics and materials is intended to reduce delivery expenses to a fraction of today’s logistics costs.
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“Airbound’s approach to drone delivery addresses fundamental physics and economics problems that have limited the scalability of existing solutions,” Groom said in Airbound’s statement. “Their blended-wing-body design and manufacturing capabilities position them to achieve the cost efficiency needed to make drone delivery truly viable for a wide range of applications.”
Airbound said its goal is to make distance irrelevant in the cost of delivery, extending access to essential goods and services across underserved areas.
The seed funding will be used to increase manufacturing output and expand operations beyond medical logistics, the company said. Insights gained from the Narayana Health pilot will help optimize efficiency, reduce costs, and prepare for a wider market rollout in 2026.
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This article Tesla And SpaceX Veterans Back India’s Airbound With $8.65 Million To Build The World’s Fastest One-Cent Drone Deliveries originally appeared on Benzinga.com