Indian drone startup Airbound has recently wrapped up an $8.65 million seed - funding round. This round was led by Rach Groom, the co - founder of Physical Intelligence. Notably, existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with executives from renowned companies like Tesla and SpaceX, also took part in this funding. The company has already embarked on a medical logistics pilot project in collaboration with private hospitals. It aims to slash the delivery cost to a mere $0.01 per shipment. To achieve this, it relies on its self - developed ultra - light flying - wing fuselage - integrated drones. These drones boast a flying - wing configuration and a carbon fiber fuselage design. The first - generation model weighs 1.5 kg and can carry a 1 kg payload. Meanwhile, the second - generation model is planned to carry 3 kg while weighing only 1.2 kg. At present, the manufacturing cost of each drone stands at $2,000, and the per - delivery cost is around $0.27. The company has set ambitious targets: it aims to bring the per - delivery cost down to below $0.05 by the end of 2026 and achieve a daily delivery volume of 1 million orders by mid - 2027. Looking beyond the medical sector, Airbound has plans to expand into last - mile logistics scenarios, such as instant retail and food delivery. Moreover, it intends to enter the U.S. market within the next three years. Currently, its Bangalore factory has a daily production capacity of just 1 unit, but there are plans to ramp it up to over 100 units. The funds raised in this round will be channeled into expanding the production scale and optimizing service processes.