Bengaluru-based Airbound Secures $8.65M Seed Funding and Contract with Narayana Health to Enable Drone Deliveries

Airbound, an autonomous delivery logistics firm specialising in blended-wing-body aircraft, today announced $8.65 million in seed funding and a pilot partnership with Narayana Health. The round was led by Lachy Groom, co-founder of Physical Intelligence, with participation from Humba Ventures and continued participation from Lightspeed. This seed round also includes investment from senior leaders at Tesla, Anduril and Ather Energy, reflecting deep conviction from operators who have scaled complex hardware and autonomy programs.

The logistics sector faces significant challenges in delivering packages efficiently across urban, semi-urban, and remote areas. Traditional delivery networks are often constrained by traffic congestion, limited road access, and high last-mile costs, leading to delays and increased operational expenses. Additionally, delivering small packages to hard-to-reach locations remains costly and time-consuming, limiting scalability and reliability for businesses and consumers alike.

Founded in 2023, Airbound is on a mission to make logistics seamless and delivery costs negligible, enabling fast, reliable transport across all sectors, including underserved regions. Their proprietary carbon-fibre manufacturing process allows rapid production of drones, each achieving a payload-to-aircraft mass ratio of 1kg-to-1.5kg. The unique blended-wing-body tailsitter design combines vertical takeoff and landing with the aerodynamic efficiency of fixed-wing flight, overcoming the limitations of tilt-rotor and quadplane designs. More than just drones, Airbound’s aircraft form the backbone of a scalable, cost-efficient, and borderless supply chain.

As part of its growth strategy, Airbound has launched a three-month pilot partnership with Narayana Health, aiming to complete 10 medical deliveries per day including blood samples, test kits, and essential supplies. This program provides a high-stakes proof of concept for one of the most demanding delivery applications, demonstrating reliability, speed, and cost efficiency.

Naman Pushp, Founder and CEO of Airbound, said, "We are grateful to our incoming and current investors for supporting our vision to make the cost of delivery negligible. The healthcare sector represents the perfect testing ground for our technology because it demands both reliability and efficiency. Our partnership  with Narayana Health validates that our approach can handle the most critical delivery requirements while demonstrating the cost advantages that will make our service accessible globally."

Lachy Groom, Co-founder of Physical Intelligence, said, "Airbound's approach to drone delivery addresses fundamental physics and economics problems that have limited the scalability of existing solutions. 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."

Dr Devi Shetty, Founder and Chairman, Narayana Health said, "At Narayana Health, we are constantly exploring innovative solutions to enhance patient care and operational efficiency. Our partnership with Airbound allows us to pilot a promising technology that could significantly improve the speed and reliability of medical deliveries. 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.”

With this funding, Airbound aims to continue reducing delivery costs to the point where geographic distance becomes irrelevant for accessing goods and services. The company's mission is to provide access to essential items, regardless of location, with a particular initial emphasis on underserved regions where traditional logistics infrastructure is limited.

Following this seed round, Airbound has raised over $10M in total funding. The company plans to use the capital to scale manufacturing, expand operations beyond medical delivery, refine its technology, and prepare for wider market adoption in 2026. Insights from the Narayana Health pilot will inform future logistics solutions, reduce delivery costs, and accelerate adoption across industries.