Sarla Aviation launched one 12 months in the past with a pitch constructed for India’s congested streets. The electrical air taxi startup, named after India’s first lady pilot, Sarla Thukral, would give attention to plane that may carry extra weight — even when which means shorter ranges.
“In India, a shorter vary is okay, so long as you possibly can supply it at a gorgeous value level. And that’s what we’re attempting to realize with this increased payload,” mentioned Adrian Schmidt, co-founder and CEO of Sarla Aviation, in an interview.
It’s a pitch that has landed with buyers. The startup mentioned Tuesday it raised $10 million in a recent funding spherical led by Accel. The all-equity Series A1 spherical included angel buyers corresponding to Binny Bansal (Flipkart co-founder), Nikhil Kamath (Zerodha co-founder), and Sriharsha Majety (Swiggy co-founder). The startup beforehand raised a seed spherical of round $1.7 million led by Accel and included participation from angels, together with Tata Motors CTO Rajendra Petkar.
Sarla Aviation plans to make use of the funds to construct an R&D middle in Bengaluru, scale its crew three or 4 instances larger than its present headcount of 30, and create new prototypes to get higher knowledge and validate it.
Unlike most flying taxi ideas which have two- to four-passenger capability, the Bengaluru-based startup is taking a look at a car carrying six passengers and a pilot weighing as much as 680 kilograms (1,500 kilos). Increasing the payload reduces the vary to 160 kilometers (99 miles) per battery cost. In distinction, a typical flying taxi idea provides a spread between 120 and 160 miles.
Schmidt, a German citizen, co-founded Sarla Aviation in January 2024 with longtime colleague Rakesh Gaonkar and software program engineer Shivam Chauhan after spending over a few years at Lilium. The Munich-based outfit was constructing regional electrical vertical take-off and touchdown (eVTOL) plane for over a decade however after elevating greater than $1 billion and going public, it shut down its operations final 12 months solely to be resurrected quickly after by a consortium of buyers. Schmidt additionally initially labored at vehicle corporations together with Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen earlier than becoming a member of Lilium in 2020.
In the center of 2023, Schmidt and Gaonkar left Germany and got here to Bengaluru to arrange Sarla Aviation after seeing India as a possible marketplace for their flying taxi enterprise. Chauhan, who was again in India after spending time within the U.S., joined them, and the trio included the startup in January 2024.
Schmidt advised TechCrunch that India’s geopolitical place, which he believes would “play a serious position in how energy dynamics shift,” satisfied him to start his enterprise within the nation.
The one-year-old startup is ready to showcase its first air taxi prototype, referred to as Shunya (zero in Hindi), at an trade occasion in New Delhi on January 17. The firm will begin testing prototypes later this 12 months and plans to launch its first industrial air taxi someday in 2028.
Schmidt mentioned Sarla Aviation will begin its industrial operations for airport transfers in Bengaluru, one of many world’s most congested cities, and regularly roll into Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune. It additionally plans to launch a free air ambulance service parallel to industrial ride-sharing providers in its first section.
Sarla Aviation’s air taxi ticket can be priced equally to the top-line of an Uber or Ola cab, which is able to come right down to the fare Indian riders sometimes pay for an auto-rickshaw over time, the manager claimed.
The startup depends on a third-party provide chain for producing its prototypes. Schmidt, nevertheless, advised TechCrunch it aimed to have 80% of its provide chain absolutely indigenous across the time of beginning industrial operations.
Sarla Aviation will compete with well-funded Archer Aviation, which partnered with InterGlobe Enterprises in 2023, and ePlane, which raised $14 million in November at a $46 million valuation. Both goal to launch flying taxis in India subsequent 12 months.
