The ePlane Company to raise $20 mn in Series-A round

IIT-Madras-incubated The ePlane Company (TEC), a deep-tech startup building a flying taxi, plans to raise $20 million in a Series-A round. It needs the money for prototype development, expansion of infrastructure, and talent acquisition as it readies to launch the first prototype of its e200 flying electric taxi by the yearend or early next year, said Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy, Founder and CEO.

In January 2022, TEC raised $5 million in a pre-series A round and $1 million in a seed round in March 2021.

Launched in April 2017, TEC recently did the first flight test of its ePlane e50 — India’s largest drone with electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) technology. It tested the initial transition from vertical take-off/hover to forward flight, and reverse transition back to hover/vertical landing with switching on and switching off the forward propellers while still controlling the aircraft through the vertical propellers, he told businessline.

Testing period

When asked about the next course of action for TEC, Chakravarthy, a professor at IIT-Madras, said the company would continue to “rigorously test” the e50 while progressing with the e200 development.

The e50 was developed as a tech demonstrator for the e200. Capable of transporting up to 50 kg payload per trip, it can potentially bridge the mid-mile market gap in the logistics, healthcare, and eCommerce sectors, transport small to mid-sized packages between warehouses, and move small machines or tools between work sites, he said.

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Traffic jams cost $22 billion yearly in major metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. TEC says it is building electric planes for 10X faster commute within cities that is priced similar to a road taxi, besides moving cargo in remote and rural areas.

UAV line-up

The company has designed three unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) models — Ek Hanz, Scout, and Vayu. The all-electric Ek Hanz has been designed to deliver payloads up to 6 kg, and fly continuously for 100 km at a cruise speed of 50 kmph. The startup says its copyrighted machine learning algorithms enable a supervision-free flight.

The vehicle takes off and lands vertically like a drone with a one-push button. However, it moves forward like a plane and automatically detects obstacles such as trees or power poles to ensure a safe flight.

Scout, a drone designed for mobile surveillance and security, has a powerful onboard processor and a long-lasting battery.

The hybrid auto-pilot e-plane Vayu is being developed to carry out surveillance in large areas. While it is smaller than Ek Hanz, Vayu can fly for more than two hours continuously on a single charge.

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