Deep-tech aerospace startup Alteon has raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Lachy Groom, with participation from Together Fund.
The round follows a recent flight test in which Alteon’s aircraft demonstrated autonomous flight within a metre of the ocean’s surface. The test helped derisk a key component of the manoeuvre on which the company’s autonomous, high-endurance flight capability relies.
The fresh capital will be used for offshore tests aimed at achieving autonomous dynamic soaring without propulsion. Alteon will also scale its R&D efforts to deploy a fleet of such aircraft over the ocean, the company said in a press release.
Founded in 2025 by Samay Sanghvi, Alteon develops autonomous aircraft designed to fly for months by using dynamic soaring to harvest energy from the atmosphere. The Bengaluru-based startup is building a new class of ultra-high-endurance aircraft that can remain airborne by drawing energy from the environment.
Its autonomous dynamic-soaring vehicles extract energy from wind gradients, similar to albatrosses, to remain airborne for extended periods. A key engineering challenge is enabling the aircraft to perform this manoeuvre autonomously close to the surface of a moving ocean.
Alteon plans to progressively test its ability to harvest energy from wind until the aircraft can sustain flight without propulsion, similar to an albatross.
The company’s aircraft fleets can carry payloads for applications such as mapping weather and ocean conditions, tracking ships and fishing activity, monitoring critical infrastructure, and supporting defence, search and rescue, scientific and industrial operations.
Alteon said its fleets could provide a continuous, real-time layer of capabilities over the ocean at a fraction of the cost of ships, satellites and large offshore installations.
The funding comes as India’s autonomous aircraft ecosystem gains investor interest. Airbound recently raised $37 million in a Series A round to develop lightweight autonomous delivery aircraft.
While dynamic-soaring aviation remains an early and highly specialised segment, recent funding activity points to growing interest in autonomous flight, advanced drones and next-generation aerospace technologies in India.