Deep-tech aerospace startup Alteon raises $2.5 M Pre-seed funding from Lachy Groom

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.

Alteon, which was founded in 2025 by Samay Sanghvi, creates self-governing aircraft that can fly for months by harnessing atmospheric energy through dynamic soaring. A new class of ultra-high-endurance aircraft that can stay in the air by using energy from the environment is being developed by a Bengaluru-based startup.

Like albatrosses, its autonomous dynamic-soaring vehicles draw energy from wind gradients to stay in the air for long stretches of time. Enabling the aircraft to execute this maneuver on its own near the surface of a moving ocean is a major engineering problem.

Alteon intends to gradually test its wind energy harvesting capabilities until the aircraft can fly without propulsion, much like an albatross.

The company’s fleets of aircraft are capable of carrying payloads for tasks like tracking ships and fishing activities, recording weather and ocean conditions, monitoring vital infrastructure, and assisting with defense, search and rescue, scientific, and industrial operations.

For a fraction of the price of ships, satellites, and huge offshore sites, Alteon claimed that its fleets could offer a continuous, real-time layer of capabilities over the ocean.

The funding coincides with an increase in investor interest in India’s autonomous aircraft ecosystem. In order to construct lightweight autonomous delivery aircraft, Airbound just secured $37 million in a Series A financing.

While dynamic-soaring aviation remains an early and highly specialist segment, recent funding activity alludes to rising interest in autonomous flying, advanced drones and next-generation aerospace technology in India.