Participated · Series B · Nov 2024

ePlane, founded in 2019 by IIT Madras aerospace professor Satya Chakravarthy, is building the e200x eVTOL for intra-city commuter and cargo applications. The vehicle uses a lift-plus-cruise, winged architecture with vertical rotors and a proprietary "synergistic lift" technology to enable a compact eight-meter wingspan and tighter landing footprints. The company says the design can perform up to 60 trips a day on a single charge, cut commute times by as much as 85%, and operate at under twice a typical Uber fare. ePlane manufactures airframe components and assembles batteries at its IIT Madras facility while outsourcing battery cells, and the team previously developed unmanned drones for cargo and camera use. The startup has a workforce of over 100 people and was valued at $46 million post-money after its latest financing. It plans to prototype the e200x in the first half of 2025 and commercialize in mid-to-late 2026 pending Indian and global regulatory certifications, with expansion targets including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Europe. The ePlane Company develops compact electric flying taxis (the e200) with a hybrid rotor-and-wing design intended for short-range intra-city transport. The startup says its vehicle can enable 10× faster door-to-door commutes at about 1.5× the cost of a regular taxi and requires no dedicated infrastructure. The company has test-flown a lab-scale prototype and is on course for a full-scale prototype in April, with a cargo carrier targeted for February 2023 and a passenger version by December 2024. Founded in 2017 and launched in 2019, the firm was incubated at IIT‑Madras and the Kerala Startup Mission. Financially, it has raised $5.0 million in a pre-Series A and previously raised $1.0 million in a Seed round the prior March. The new funds will be used for product development, increased engineering bandwidth, local certification efforts, and hiring. The ePlane Company is an aerial mobility firm developing vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) electric planes intended for small door-to-door urban commutes. The company was founded in 2017 and is incubated at IIT Madras; it was set up by Pranjal Mehta and Satya Chakravarthy, an IIT Madras professor. The firm is based in Bengaluru. It will use the newly raised seed capital to build out its engineering team, develop intellectual property, and conduct early product demonstrations this year. The company previously announced an undisclosed seed raise led by Speciale Invest with participation from CIIE.CO and ShareChat co-founder Farid Ahsan.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2024

CynLr builds the CyRo three‑armed modular robot and a proprietary vision system (CLX‑01) that uses "Event Imaging" to perceive depth and handle transparent or reflective objects in varied lighting. The company aims to solve object recognition and manipulation in unstructured environments without extensive pre‑programming, enabling a "Universal Factory" concept and an "Object Store" for downloadable task applications. Recent plans include scaling manufacturing to produce one robotic system per day and expanding R&D, sales, and supply‑chain capabilities to support broader adoption. CynLr will grow headcount from 60 to 120 and expand teams across India, the US, and Switzerland, and projects $22 million in revenue by 2027 tied to increased production. Its physical infrastructure includes a 13,000‑sq‑ft Bengaluru lab (25 robots today, >50 by 2026) and a new research facility in Prilly, Switzerland inaugurated in September 2024, collaborating with EPFL’s LASA and CSEM. The company currently has $15.2 million in total funding.