Deep-tech startup Arctus Aerospace has raised $2.6 million in a pre-seed round from Version One Ventures, South Park Commons, gradCapital, and prominent angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan, Srinivas Narayan, and early engineers from Ather, Bounce Infinity, and Boom Supersonic. The capital marks a significant step in Arctus’s bid to build one of India’s deepest full-stack unmanned aviation systems.
Building Long-Endurance Aircraft for Real-Time Intelligence
Arctus is developing large unmanned aircraft capable of flying at 45,000 feet for up to 24 hours, carrying payloads of up to 250 kg. The company operates out of its manufacturing and testing facility in Bengaluru and aims to build a vertically integrated production ecosystem spanning aircraft design, engineering, and system testing.
The startup said today’s Earth-observation market is constrained by expensive satellites with long revisit cycles and high-altitude defence aircraft priced far above commercial feasibility. This leaves industries without affordable access to frequent, high-resolution, on-demand geospatial data.
A New Model for High-Altitude Intelligence
Arctus aims to bridge this gap by offering high-altitude intelligence at $100 per flight hour, significantly reducing costs for real-time data collection. The company says imagery that typically costs $10,000 for 500 sq km can now be delivered for nearly $500, opening opportunities across energy grids, climate monitoring, infrastructure planning, and security operations.
Its long-endurance platform is positioned as a flexible, commercially viable alternative to satellites and defence-grade HALE systems, enabling customers to deploy on-demand sensing without the operational rigidity associated with space-based missions.
Toward Zero-Infrastructure Earth Intelligence
Founder and CEO Shreepoorna S Rao said the company’s long-term mission is to remove the dependency on ground-based systems for monitoring and inspection. “By flying large unmanned aircraft at high altitudes for long durations, we are building the base for zero-infrastructure Earth intelligence at centimetre-level resolution,” he said.
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