Bumble Bee Flights Gets INR 300 Crore Investment Bumble Bee Flights will manufacture Air Taxis under the brand Bee Flights that would be certified and available for production by 2024
By Teena Jose
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
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, defense applications, has raised INR 300 crore in investment from the UK-based technology conglomerate SRAM & MRAM Technologies and Resources Limited. The company will use the funds to set up an assembly plant in Odisha for manufacturing the Air Taxis.
"eVTOL Aircrafts are 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," said Arjun Das, founder of Bumble Bee Flights.
The company plans to launch the first prototype by April 2023. Bumble Bee Flights will manufacture Air Taxis under the brand Bee Flights that would be certified and available for production by 2024. The company will design and manufacture these Air Taxis further partnering with operators across the globe to service, support and run the operations. For this, the first step would be obtaining a certification aimed for US, UK, UAE, India and Singapore, according to a statement given by the company.
"Bee Flights Air-Taxis would run on solar-charged swappable batteries and would weigh around 300 kgs compared to Helicopters that weight about 1000 kgs and more. It has the capacity to carry one person along with a suitcase and can land on the rooftop of apartments as well which has adequate space unlike helicopters that need specific helipads. These Air Taxis can fly for 20 minutes for a distance of 20 kms. Booking an Air-Taxi would be like as easy as booking a Taxi from Ola or Uber," Arjun added.
He further added 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 movement and today we are announcing our investment of INR 300 crore 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.
