Bangalore: Bumble Bee Flights Pvt Ltd, a company that has designed and developed India’s first autonomous Air Mobility Solution capable of human transportation with multiple use case scenarios such as air ambulance, air taxi, logistics, recreational use, defence applications, has raised 300 crore INR (37 Million USD) in investment from the UK-based technology conglomerate SRAM & MRAM Technologies and Resources Limited.
The Bengaluru-based startup, founded by serial entrepreneur and Air Mobility Solutions expert Arjun Das in early 2022, will use the funds to set up an assembly plant in Odisha for manufacturing the Air Taxis. The company plans to launch the prototype by April 2023. Bumble Bee Flights will manufacture Air Taxis under the Bee Flights that will be certified and available for production by 2024.
Regarding the investment, Arjun Das, Founder of Bumble Bee Flights, said, “eVTOL Aircraft is the future of urban mobility and transport. These autonomous Air Taxis would not only ease the already burdened urban road infrastructure but also will work towards reducing carbon footprints. We aim to work towards making mobility cheaper, faster and more sustainable for the human race in the future.”
Arjun added that Bumble Bee Flights would design and manufacture these Air Taxis, further partnering with operators across the globe to service, support and run the operations. He also mentioned that the first step would be obtaining certification for US, UK, UAE, India and Singapore.
“We are like the Boeing or Airbus for the Air Mobility Solutions,” said Arjun adding that Bee1 is the first Air Taxi from India that will be certified in multiple countries and is intended to be used for multiple purposes, including human transportation, air ambulance, air taxi and in the logistics and supply chain sectors.
“We are committed to the Make in India, Make for the global movement, and are pleased to announce our investment of Rs300 crores to Bee Flights to build the future of transportation in the recently concluded Make In Odisha Conclave 2022. This is also a step towards putting Odisha and India on the global Air Mobility Solution map,” said Arjun.
Bee Flights Air-Taxis would run on solar-charged swappable batteries and weigh around 300 kgs compared to Helicopters, which weigh about 1000 kgs and more. It can carry one person with a suitcase and land on the rooftop of apartments, which has adequate space, unlike helicopters that need specific helipads. These Air-Taxis can fly for 20 minutes for a distance of 20 km. “Booking an Air-Taxi would be as easy as booking a Taxi from Ola or Uber,” Arjun said.
Arjun feels that these self-driven air taxis will become a regular feature in the world by the year 2035, when about 10% of the transportation will be managed and controlled by these flying vehicles, thus streamlining daily commuting, saving millions of driving hours and reducing pollution drastically to make the world a better place to live in. Morgan Stanley, a US investment company, predicted that the global UAM market will grow 30 per cent annually between 2021 and 2040, reaching USD 1.5 trillion by 2040.
“We are committed to the Make in India movement, and today we are announcing our investment of 300 Crores to Bee Flights to build the future starting from right here in Make In Odisha Conclave 2022. We share a common vision of the importance of a sustainable future using Electric Air Mobility Systems. We are proud to be a part of this common future vision,” said GurujeeKumaran Swami, Vice Chairman, SRAM & MRAM Technologies and Resources Limited.
