Accel ramps up Sarla Aviation ambitions to develop electric air taxis in India

Sarla Aviation was founded a year ago to build a ballpark for India's crowded streets. The electric air taxi startup, named after India's first female pilot, Sarla Thukral, will focus on aircraft that can carry more weight, even if that means shorter ranges.

“In India, shorter ranges are fine as long as you can offer the product at an attractive price. Adrian Schmidt, co-founder and CEO of Sarla Aviation, said in an interview: “That’s what we’re trying to achieve with higher payloads. “

It's a pitch that's already attracting investors. The startup said Tuesday it raised $10 million in a new round of funding led by Accel. The all-equity Series A1 round included angel investors such as Binny Bansal (co-founder of Flipkart), Nikhil Kamath (co-founder of Zerodha) and Sriharsha Majety (co-founder of Swiggy). The startup had previously raised around $1.7 million in seed funding, led by Accel, with participation from angel investors including Tata Motors Chief Technology Officer Rajendra Petkar.

Sarla Aviation plans to use the funds to set up an R&D center in Bengaluru, expand its team size to three to four times the current 30 people, and create new prototypes to obtain better data and validate it.

Unlike most flying taxi concepts that can seat two to four passengers, the Bengaluru-based startup is working on a vehicle that can carry six passengers and a pilot weighing up to 680 kilograms (1,500 pounds). Adding payload reduces range to 160 kilometers (99 miles) per battery charge. By comparison, a typical flying taxi concept has a range of 120 to 160 miles.

Schmidt, a German citizen, co-founded Sarla Aviation in January 2024 with long-time colleague Rakesh Gaonkar and software engineer Shivam Chauhan, after working at Lilium for several years. The Munich-based company has been building regional electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for more than a decade, but after raising more than $1 billion and taking it public, it shut down operations last year, only to be replaced shortly after. A consortium is relaunched. investors. Schmidt also initially worked at automotive companies such as Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen before joining Lilium in 2020.

In mid-2023, Schmidt and Gohnkar viewed India as a potential market for their flying taxi enterprise, so they left Germany and came to Bangalore to establish Sarla Aviation. Chauhan, who returned to India after spending time in the United States, joined them and the trio launched the startup in January 2024.

Schmidt told TechCrunch that India's geopolitical position, which he believes will “play an important role in shifting power dynamics,” prompted him to start venturing out in the country.

The one-year-old startup will showcase its first air taxi prototype, called Shunya (Hindi for “zero”), at an industry event in New Delhi on January 17. The company will begin testing prototypes later this year and plans to launch its first commercial air taxi in 2028.

Schmidt said Sarla Aviation will launch commercial operations for airport transfers in Bengaluru, one of the world's most congested cities, and gradually expand to Mumbai, Delhi and Pune. It also plans to launch a free air ambulance service in the first phase in parallel with commercial ride-sharing services.

Sarla Aviation's air taxi fares will be similar to top-line fares for Uber or Ola taxis, and over time the price will depend on what Indian passengers typically pay for autorickshaws, the executive said.

The startup relies on third-party supply chains to produce its prototypes. However, Schmidt told TechCrunch that it aims to have 80% of its supply chain fully localized by the time it starts commercial operations.

Sarla Aviation will compete with well-funded Archer Aviation, which partnered with InterGlobe Enterprises in 2023, and ePlane, which raised $14 million at a $46 million valuation in November. Both companies plan to launch flying taxis in India next year.