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Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Accel doubles down on Sarla Aviation’s ambition to develop electrical air taxis in India


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 provide it at a gorgeous value level. And that’s what we’re making an attempt to realize with this larger payload,” stated Adrian Schmidt, co-founder and CEO of Sarla Aviation, in an interview.

It’s a pitch that has landed with traders. The startup stated Tuesday it raised $10 million in a recent funding spherical led by Accel. The all-equity Sequence A1 spherical included angel traders similar 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 angels, together with Tata Motors CTO Rajendra Petkar, earlier than the recent funding.

Sarla Aviation plans to make use of the funds to construct an R&D middle in Bengaluru, scale its staff three or 4 occasions larger than its present headcount of 30, and create new prototypes to get higher knowledge and validate it.

Not like 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). Rising the payload reduces the vary to 160 kilometers (99 miles) per battery cost. In distinction, a typical flying taxi idea presents a variety between 120 and 160 miles.

Schmidt, a German citizen, co-founded Sarla Aviation with long-time colleague Rakesh Gaonkar and software program engineer Shivam Chauhan in January 2024 after spending over a few years at Munich-based Lilium, which was constructing regional electrical vertical take-off and touchdown (eVTOL) plane for over a decade however finally shut down its operations final 12 months — after elevating greater than $1 billion earlier than going public — and was resurrected by a consortium of its traders in December. Schmidt additionally initially labored at vehicle corporations together with Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen earlier than becoming a member of Lilium in 2020.

In the course 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.

Sarla Aviation co-founders Shivam Chauhan, Rakesh Gaonkar, and Adrian Schmidt (left to proper)Picture Credit:Sarla Aviation

The one-year-old startup is about to showcase its first air taxi prototype, known as Shunya (zero in Hindi), at an trade occasion in New Delhi on January 17. The corporate will begin testing prototypes later this 12 months and plans to launch its first industrial air taxi someday in 2028. 

Schmidt stated 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 companies in its first part.

Sarla Aviation’s air taxi ticket could be priced equally to the top-line of an Uber or Ola cab, which can 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 totally indigenous across the time of beginning industrial operations.

Sarla Aviation will compete with well-funded Archer Aviation, partnered with InterGlobe Enterprises in 2023, and ePlane, which raised $14 million in November at a $46 million valuation — each goal to launch flying taxis in India subsequent 12 months.

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