Air mobility is taking off to nice heights. Based in 2024 by Rakesh Gaonkar, Adrian Schmidt, and Shivam Chauhan, Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation develops electrical vertical take-off and touchdown (eVTOL) plane for city air mobility. The startup raised $10 million in a Sequence A1 spherical of funding led by Accel. Different traders included Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and Swiggy co-founder Sriharsha Majety.
This week, Sarla Aviation is trying to unveil Shunya, a seven-seater electrical flying taxi geared toward making air mobility as inexpensive as ride-sharing. Powered by their hybrid-lift-and-cruise eVTOL, Sarla is trying to revolutionise city mobility and has already teamed up with Bangalore Worldwide Airport Ltd (BIAL) to launch its companies.
Supply: Sarla Aviation
Airport Switch by way of Air
In response to Schmidt, Sarla Aviation will first start its industrial operations for airport transfers in Bengaluru earlier than increasing to Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune. In its first part, the corporate additionally plans to introduce a free air ambulance service alongside industrial ride-sharing choices.
The air taxi fare from Sarla Aviation will initially be similar to the best fares of Uber or Ola cabs however is anticipated to lower over time, ultimately matching the standard value of an auto-rickshaw journey in India.
In part two, Sarla Aviation plans to attach organised places straight with one another. Residents in communities with touchdown pads on their buildings will be capable of simply fly to locations comparable to their workplaces, faculties, universities, metropolis parks, and even cricket stadiums. By 2035, i.e. in part 3, Sarla envisions flying taxis as a type of mass transportation
Named after India’s first feminine pilot, Sarla Thukral, Sarla Aviation plans to make use of the funds to ascertain an R&D centre in Bengaluru, broaden its group by three to 4 occasions its present measurement of 30, and develop new prototypes to assemble and validate higher knowledge.
The startup had earlier raised a seed spherical of roughly $1.7 million, led by Accel, with participation from angel traders comparable to Tata Motors CTO Rajendra Petkar.
Plenty of Indian firms have already ventured into electrical air taxis. Indigo is partnering with Archer Aviation, based by Brett Adcock from Determine robotics, to launch an all-electric air taxi service in India by 2026.
Not too long ago, Chennai-based ePlane Firm partnered with TCS to leverage their AI options for his or her city air mobility startup.
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