Air Taxi Startup Sarla Aviation Raises $10 Million from Accel, Nikhil Kamath, and Others

Air mobility is taking off to great heights. Founded in 2024 by Rakesh Gaonkar, Adrian Schmidt, and Shivam Chauhan, Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation develops electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for urban air mobility. The startup raised $10 million in a Series A1 round of funding led by Accel. Other investors included Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and Swiggy co-founder Sriharsha Majety. 

This week, Sarla Aviation is looking to unveil Shunya, a seven-seater electric flying taxi aimed at making air mobility as affordable as ride-sharing. Powered by their hybrid-lift-and-cruise eVTOL, Sarla is looking to revolutionise urban mobility and has already teamed up with Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) to launch its services. 

Source: Sarla Aviation

Airport Transfer through Air

According to Schmidt, Sarla Aviation will first begin its commercial operations for airport transfers in Bengaluru before expanding to Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune. In its first phase, the company also plans to introduce a free air ambulance service alongside commercial ride-sharing options.

The air taxi fare from Sarla Aviation will initially be comparable to the highest fares of Uber or Ola cabs but is expected to decrease over time, eventually matching the typical cost of an auto-rickshaw ride in India. 

In phase two, Sarla Aviation plans to connect organised locations directly with each other. Residents in communities with landing pads on their buildings will be able to easily fly to destinations such as their offices, schools, universities, city parks, or even cricket stadiums. By 2035, i.e. in phase 3, Sarla envisions flying taxis as a form of mass transportation 

Named after India’s first female pilot, Sarla Thukral, Sarla Aviation plans to use the funds to establish an R&D centre in Bengaluru, expand its team by three to four times its current size of 30, and develop new prototypes to gather and validate better data.

The startup had earlier raised a seed round of approximately $1.7 million, led by Accel, with participation from angel investors such as Tata Motors CTO Rajendra Petkar.

A number of Indian companies have already ventured into electric air taxis. Indigo is partnering with Archer Aviation, founded by Brett Adcock from Figure robotics, to launch an all-electric air taxi service in India by 2026. 

Recently, Chennai-based ePlane Company partnered with TCS to leverage their AI solutions for their urban air mobility startup.