Bengaluru-based startup Alteon has announced it has raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. The investment, led by solo investor Lachy Groom with participation from Together Fund, will support Alteon's goal of developing autonomous aircraft designed to stay in the sky for over a year by harvesting energy from ocean winds.
Founded by 20-year-old Samay Sanghvi, Alteon is developing small, fixed-wing autonomous aircraft that aim to use dynamic soaring. This technique involves repeatedly moving between layers of air at different speeds to extract energy from wind shear above the ocean.
Alteon plans to initially use these aircraft for maritime surveillance. The startup recently completed a test of its autonomous flight system over the Bay of Bengal, where an aircraft autonomously completed seven O-shaped cycles at over 62 miles per hour, flying within one meter of the water's surface.
While the underlying physics of dynamic soaring is established, Alteon has not yet demonstrated sustained flight using harvested energy. Experts note challenges include reliably extracting enough energy from real-world winds and safely operating at low altitudes amidst turbulence and changing conditions.