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Sarla Aviation Launched a year ago with a pitch built for India’s congested roads. The electric air taxi startup, named after India’s first woman pilot, Sarla refused Will focus on aircraft that can carry more weight – even if that means shorter range.
“In India, a short range is fine, as long as you can offer it at an attractive price point And that’s what we’re trying to achieve with this higher payload,” Sarala Aviation co-founder and CEO Adrian Schmidt said in an interview.
It’s a pitch that has gone down with investors. The startup said Tuesday that it has raised $10 million in a new funding round led by Excel. The all-equity Series A1 round included angel investors such as Binny Bansal (co-founder of Flipkart), Nikhil Kamath (co-founder of Zerodha) and Sriharsh Majeti (co-founder of Swiggy). The startup had previously raised a seed round of around $1.7 million, led by Accel, and included participating angels including Tata Motors CTO Rajendra Petkar before the new investment.
Sarla Aviation plans to use the funds to build a research and development center in Bengaluru, scale its team to three or four times its current strength of 30, and build new prototypes to get better data and validate it.
Unlike most flying taxi concepts that have a two- to four-passenger capacity, the Bengaluru-based startup is looking at a vehicle carrying six passengers and a pilot weighing up to 680 kilograms (1,500 pounds). Increasing the payload decreases the battery charge per 160 km (99 mi) of range. In contrast, a typical flying taxi concept offers a range between 120 and 160 miles.
Schmidt, a German national, after spending a few years at Munich-based Lilium, co-founded Sarla Aviation with longtime colleague Rakesh Gaonkar and software engineer Shivam Chauhan, which was developing regional electric vertical take-off and landing. (eVTOL) aircraft for more than a decade but finally It ceased operations last year — after raising more than $1 billion before going public — and was Resurrected by a consortium of its investors Schmidt also initially worked at automobile companies including Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen before joining Lilium in December 2020.
In mid-2023, Schmidt and Gaonkar left Germany for Bengaluru to set up Sarla Aviation, seeing India as a potential market for their flying taxi venture. Chauhan, who had returned to India after spending time in the US, joined them and the trio incorporated the startup in January 2024.
Schmidt told TechCrunch that India’s geopolitical location, which he believes “will play a major role in how energy dynamics change,” convinced him to launch his venture in the country.
The one-year-old startup is all set to showcase its first air taxi prototype called Shunya (Zero in Hindi) at an industry event in New Delhi on January 17. The company will begin testing the prototype later this year and plans to launch it. First commercial air taxi in 2028.
Schmidt said Sarala Aviation will start its commercial operations for the airport transfer in Bangalore, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and gradually roll out to Mumbai, Delhi and Pune. It plans to launch a free air ambulance service in the first phase parallel to commercial ride-sharing services
Sarla Aviation’s air taxi ticket prices will be on par with top-line Uber or Ola cabs, which will come down to what Indian riders typically pay for auto-rickshaws over time, the executive claimed.
The startup relies on a third-party supply chain to manufacture its prototypes. Schmidt, however, told TechCrunch that it aims to fully domesticate 80% of its supply chain by the time it begins commercial operations.
Sarla Aviation will compete with better financing Archer Aviation2023 partnered with InterGlobe Enterprises, and on the planewhich raised $14 million at a $46 million valuation in November — both aim to launch flying taxis in India next year.
