Poseidon Aerospace lands $60M ahead of first pilotless test flight

Silicon Valley is known for embracing the ethos of “move accelerated and interruption things.” Poseidon Aerospace’s co-founder and CEO David Zagaynov conscionable wants to determination things fast.

When helium was moving connected logistics astatine Amazon successful 2024, Zagaynov and his Poseidon co-founder Parker Tenney (who was astatine Lockheed Martin) recovered themselves repeatedly talking astir the emergence of precocious aerial mobility startups. They realized, Zagaynov told TechCrunch successful an exclusive interview, that the absorption was astir ever connected introducing flashy caller technologies.

“Philosophically, we privation to physique the aboriginal of aerologistics,” Zagaynov said. “Not to beryllium a hater, but I deliberation a batch of radical who commencement aerospace companies get nerd-sniped by precise chill exertion and past privation to instrumentality it into market. For us, we privation to amended cargo.”

Poseidon Aerospace secured $11 cardinal successful effect backing past twelvemonth successful pursuit of this goal. Now, the institution has closed a $60 cardinal Series A up of the archetypal trial formation of its uncrewed cargo plane, Egret, expected by the extremity of this year.

The backing circular was led by early-stage VC firm, TQ Ventures, and saw caller investments from Hanwha Asset Management, G Squared and JAWS. Existing backers Starship Ventures, Draper Associates and Drover Ventures besides invested.

True to Zagaynov’s allergy to getting “nerd-sniped” by promising-yet-currently-unworkable technologies, Poseidon is being built with a ruthless attack to lowering the outgo of transporting cargo.

The startup is embracing autonomy and distant piloting, but it’s not bothering with the vertical takeoff and landing tech that is de rigueur among truthful galore aviation startups. There’s besides nary hydrogen oregon electrical powertrain to beryllium found. Egret and its seaplane variant, Heron, are fixed-wing craft powered by regular aged combustion engines.

“It’s truly hard to bushed the vigor density of fuels of thing carbon-related,” Zagaynov said. “Can I marque a truly bully container with wings to determination things for ace cheap? If you bash that, past abstracting the tech away, we’re near with unmanned cargo similar planes that are capable to run connected a overmuch little outgo curve, and person overmuch higher utilization.”

Zagaynov said Poseidon is initially targeting the defence and determination commercialized cargo spaces.

On the defence side, the startup is designing its craft truthful it tin work “remote communities and underserved routes wherever aerial cargo work is constrained.” Poseidon wants its planes to grip locations with “degraded oregon nonexistent infrastructure,” due to the fact that specified capabilities marque a nation’s logistics capabilities “harder to disrupt and much resilient to adversary denial.” The startup has noted successful the past that China is already investigating its ain cargo drones.

On the commercialized side, Zagaynov said Poseidon isn’t going to merchantability its planes. He wants Poseidon to run its ain determination aerial cargo concern successful bid to vie with existing aerial cargo carriers for concern from UPS, FedEx, and others.

Not requiring pilots for the craft besides paves the mode for Poseidon to run astatine little cost. “What’s precise bully is, logistics is simply a commodity, and truthful if you merchantability a commodity and bash it better, faster, cheaper, the request is each yours,” helium said.

The autonomy besides makes Poseidon a perchance much flexible and dynamic carrier, according to Zagaynov. If request spikes successful a peculiar region, it volition beryllium easier for Poseidon to alteration its routes since it isn’t readying astir a peculiar excavation of pilots who unrecorded successful 1 country oregon another. He besides imagines a satellite wherever Poseidon’s craft tin interruption the emblematic hub-and-spoke exemplary of determination aerial cargo, and bash much point-to-point trips, akin to however low-cost commercialized airlines similar Breeze oregon Avelo operate.

“When you person a pilot, they person a maximum magnitude of hours that they tin fly. So if they alert a five-hour limb successful 1 direction, they’re not capable to travel backmost home. And unless you person a alleviation [pilot], past you person to wage for them to walk the nighttime somewhere,” helium said. “The level is similar a precise costly plus that spends astir of its beingness conscionable waiting.”

Another payment of not having a pilot, according to Zagaynov, is that it frees up the startup to alteration cardinal aspects of the plan of its aircraft.

“Get escaped of the cockpit; get escaped of the beingness enactment systems,” helium said. “You get to propulsion a ton of structured value out, which past means that your ratio of payload to bare value changes. Your engines tin beryllium overmuch lighter, overmuch much efficient, and truthful it’s similar a virtuous rhythm successful the affirmative absorption of conscionable lighter, cheaper.”

To bash each this, Poseidon has expanded into an aged Navy hanger successful Alameda, California, and is astir to spell connected a hiring spree arsenic it pushes towards that archetypal flight. The startup past twelvemonth developed and flew a quarter-scale mentation of its vehicle, which it called Seagull, but it needed much abstraction to physique its full-size, 50-foot-wingspan aircraft.

Poseidon’s besides benefiting from a regulatory situation that is unfastened to caller ideas. The Federal Aviation Administration precocious started a aviator programme that makes it easier for startups moving connected electrical vertical takeoff and landing craft to trial their tech. Poseidon isn’t moving successful that space, but Zagaynov said his startup inactive benefits from the program, and that there’s a “path to commercialization that I don’t deliberation existed similar 5 to 10 years ago.”