Chiratae Ventures leads seed round for Skye Air Mobility

Drone company Skye Air Mobility has raised $1.7 million (around Rs 13.9 crore) in a seed round, led by Chiratae Ventures. 

The round also saw participation from Lead Angels, O2 Angels, Agility Ventures, Lets Venture and several investors, including Rajeev Chitrabhanu, Ankit Nagori, Varun Alagh, Gautam Badalia, Ayush Lohia and others.

Skye Air said it has formed partnerships with state governments to expand its business. The company is currently operating in 8 cities across the country and plans to expand to 16 cities in the next 24 months.

"This investment comes at a time when we are intensifying our efforts to expand our services in the Indian market. We are convinced that the funding will facilitate our team to open untouched channels, allowing us to bring drone delivery services to more customers in India and beyond,” said Ankit Kumar, chief executive officer, Skye Air Mobility.

The company has a presence in eight cities across India working with clients like Flipkart, Dunzo, Swiggy, Redcliffe Labs, Aster Healthcare, Blue Dart, Cure Foods and many others. It has also conducted world’s longest BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) medicine delivery flight with Flipkart Health of 104 kms between Baruipur and Medinipur in West Bengal delivering medicines reducing the delivery time by over 80% compared to conventional means, Skye Air said in a statement.

“Our core aim is to enable change, bring the much-needed disruption in the first & last mile logistics industry to move faster and more efficiently. Skye Air is proactively working in the healthcare, quick commerce and e-commerce verticals enabling solutions for faster and cost-effective deliveries. With the new round of funding, we aim to make drone delivery as a mainstream solution,” Kumar added.

The drone and its components industry can strengthen India's manufacturing potential to $23 billion approximately by 2030, according to the latest EY-FICCI report titled, “Making India the drone hub of the world”.

Additionally, strong action plans are needed to create a robust demand, boost manufacturing, attract investments and facilitate exports to make India the drone hub of the world by 2030, offering the most competitive and innovative manufacturing capabilities, the report stated.