Alteon raises $2.5 Mn to build autonomous aircraft that can fly for months without landing; funding follows August offshore test

Alteon, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech aerospace company, has raised USD 2.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Lachy Groom, with participation from Together Fund. The funding aims to advance the development of autonomous dynamic soaring vehicles that can extract energy from wind gradients, similar to how albatrosses fly, allowing them to remain airborne for extended periods.

In an early August offshore flight test, Alteon’s aircraft successfully demonstrated its capability by autonomously flying multiple consecutive loops less than a metre above the ocean's surface. This milestone flight test showcased the potential of the aircraft to operate without the need for landing, a significant breakthrough in aviation technology.

Samay Sanghvi, Founder of Alteon, emphasized that achieving the goal of flying for over a year is not just about a single technical breakthrough but involves solving various engineering challenges across autonomy, structures, and aerodynamics. He noted, “Building aircraft that fly for over a year using it is not a matter of a single technical breakthrough but a matter of solving a range of challenging engineering problems.”

Investor Lachy Groom remarked on the remarkable progress made by Sanghvi and his team, stating, “If they get this right, there could soon be millions of them, essentially parked in the sky, doing things that today require large ships, crews and huge amounts of infrastructure.” Shubham Gupta, Co-founder of Together Fund, highlighted the significance of this technology, saying, “Alteon removes that assumption entirely, with an aircraft that flies itself, charges itself from the wind, and stays up for months.” This funding will propel Alteon towards achieving autonomous dynamic soaring without propulsion and scaling research and development for deploying a fleet of these aircraft over the ocean.³