ePlane raises seed funding from VC firms, ShareChat exec
The ePlane Company, an aerial mobility firm focussed on urban travel, has raised seed funding from a clutch of investors.
The round in the Chennai-based company has been led by Speciale Invest, a deep-technology-focussed venture capital firm. Other participants include IIM-Ahmedabad’s incubator CIIE.CO, FirstCheque, Java Capital, and ShareChat co-founder Farid Ahsan.
The startup didn’t disclose the amount it raised.
The ePlane Company was set up in 2017 by Pranjal Mehta and Satya Chakravarthy, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, where the company was incubated.
The company says it aims to build electric planes that will provide faster commutes at similar prices to that of conventional road taxis. These products will also have a use case of moving cargo in remote and rural areas. The company currently has a team of 10 members and is looking to expand this number to 25.
The company will use the capital it has raised to augment its technological and building infrastructure and hire engineering talent to develop intellectual property, with a focus on early product demonstrations by next year.
While ePlane is among a handful of companies globally looking at building air taxis, it is among several in the larger e-vehicle space that has received investor attention in the past few years.
