AIR, a startup focused on electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for logistics, personal flight, and defense, has raised $23 million in Series A funding, led by Entrée Capital and Dr. Shmuel Harlap. This funding will support U.S. expansion and production to meet growing demand for air mobility.
Due to a recent U.S. Executive Order and the FAA’s updated MOSAIC ruling, AIR is positioned to be among the first to secure light sport aircraft (LSA) certification. In 2023, AIR commenced commercial operations with its first logistics customer and is expanding its team to handle the increasing demand for both crewed and uncrewed models.
The uncrewed cargo eVTOL has a 100-mile range, speeds of up to 120 knots, and a payload capacity of 550 pounds, while the piloted AIR ONE focuses on performance and safety. With successful flight demonstrations and a U.S. operations center established for FAA certification, AIR plans to deliver 15 uncrewed eVTOLs next year and has over 2,500 pre-orders for the AIR ONE, positioning it to lead the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) industry.
KEY QUOTES:
“This funding solidifies AIR’s path forward and enables us to continue fulfilling the promise we made to our customers. We’re proud to have demonstrated our ability to succeed with lean operations, generating significant revenues in the eVTOL space while operating efficiently. We have no doubt that with Entrée Capital’s backing and knowledge, we will be able to deliver our advanced air mobility solutions to the market even faster than before.”
Rani Plaut, CEO and co-founder of AIR
“We have tracked AIR from its initial founding to the point where it has achieved full flight operations across commercial (logistics), consumer, and defense applications. The platform designed is an engineering marvel that has multiple modalities, and it will revolutionize existing use cases for air transportation given its low cost, low maintenance, ease of use and high endurance and safety. We led the investment in AIR given our belief in its vision and it being the only OEM in its category that is delivering a real product today, years ahead of any rival. We are fortunate to have a tremendous founding team with such experience leading the company.”
Avi Eyal, Managing Partner, Entrée Capital
