Bumble Bee Flights Pvt. Ltd, a startup that designs and develops autonomous air mobility solutions, on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 300 crore ($37 million) in investment from UK-based technology and manufacturing group SRAM & MRAM Technologies and Resources Ltd.
The startup, headquartered in Bengaluru, was founded in early 2022 by serial entrepreneur Arjun Das. He previously co-founded video analytics platform Nymo Technologies.
The company aims to provide autonomous air mobility, with plans to launch the first prototype by April 2023. It will manufacture air taxis for logistics, recreational, defence applications and as ambulances. The electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft will be launched under the brand ‘Bee Flights,’ and will use replaceable batteries to hover, fly, take off, and land vertically.
“eVTOL aircraft are the future of urban mobility and transport. These autonomous air taxis would not only ease the already burdened urban road infrastructure but will also work towards reducing carbon footprint. We aim to work towards making mobility cheaper, faster and more sustainable for the human race in the future,” said Das.
The firm will partner with operators across the globe to service, support and run the operations.
“We are like the Boeing or Airbus for air mobility solutions,” said Das.
Bumble Bee will use the capital to set up an assembly plant in Odisha for manufacturing the air taxis, which would be available for production by 2024, the startup said in a statement.
This would be done after achieving required licensing and certification. These taxis, weighing about 300-kgs, would have the capacity to carry one-person and use solar-charged swappable batteries. Bee Flights expects to cover a distance of 20 km in 20 minutes.
The first step would be obtaining a certification aimed for the US, UK, UAE, India and Singapore, Das added. ‘Bee1’ would be the first air taxi from India that will be certified in multiple countries.