Bumble Bee Flights receives investment of 300 Cr.

First Human Carrying prototype to be launched in April 2023, certified production-ready Urban Air Mobility vehicle by 2024

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 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 first prototype in April 2023. Bumble Bee Flights will manufacture Air Taxis under the brand Bee Flights that would be certified and available for production by 2024. 

Talking about 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 further added that Bumble Bee Flights will design and manufacture these Air Taxis further partnering with operators across the globe to service, support, and run the operations. In addition, he mentioned that the first step would be to obtain a certification aimed at the US, UK, UAE, India, and Singapore. 

“We are like Boeing or Airbus for 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 in Bee Flights to build the future of transportation at 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 would weigh around 300 kgs compared to helicopters that weigh about 1000 kgs and more. It has the capacity to carry one person along with a suitcase. It can land on the rooftops 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 km. “Booking an Air-Taxi would be like as easy as booking a taxi from Ola or Uber,” Arjun said. 

Arjun feels that these self-driven air taxis would become a regular feature in the world by the year 2035 when about 10% of the transportation would 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 would grow 30 percent annually between 2021 and 2040, reaching USD 1.5 trillion by 2040.

We are committed to the Make in India movement. Todaynounce our investment of 300 crores in Bee Flights to build the future here, starting at the 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