Key facts
- Lachy Groom has invested $2.5 million in Indian startup Alteon.
- Alteon aims to develop autonomous aircraft that can stay airborne for over a year.
- The technology is inspired by dynamic soaring, a technique used by albatrosses.
- The aircraft will harvest energy from ocean winds.
- Initial applications include maritime surveillance.
- Alteon completed a test flight over the Bay of Bengal.
Prominent investor Lachy Groom has backed Alteon, a Bengaluru-based startup founded by 20-year-old Samay Sanghvi, which has raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. The company is developing autonomous aircraft inspired by dynamic soaring, a technique that allows albatrosses to extract energy from wind. Alteon's goal is to enable aircraft to remain airborne for over a year by harvesting energy from ocean winds.
Conventional aircraft rely on carrying fuel or batteries, but Alteon aims to break this limitation with small, fixed-wing autonomous aircraft. These aircraft will repeatedly move between layers of air with different speeds to gain energy from wind shear above the ocean. Initially, Alteon plans to use these aircraft for maritime surveillance, providing real-time visibility into a nation's waters.
The initial design involves a three-meter wingspan aircraft that will fly close to the ocean's surface, climb into faster-moving air, and repeat the cycle. Eventually, the propellers will function as turbines to convert harvested energy into electricity to recharge onboard batteries. While the startup has not yet demonstrated sustained flight using dynamic soaring, it recently completed a test flight over the Bay of Bengal where the aircraft autonomously completed seven O-shaped cycles at over 62 mph, flying close to the water's surface.
Experts acknowledge the ambition and potential of Alteon's approach. Dr. Gabriel Bousquet, who researched dynamic soaring at MIT, called the low-altitude flight over water a "promising first result" but noted the significant challenge of proving reliable energy extraction for extended flight. Dr. Bharath Swaminathan from IIT Madras highlighted that achieving flight for several days would be a major achievement, though he cautioned that local wind shear and turbulence can complicate continuous energy extraction.
Groom acknowledged the technical risks but expressed confidence in Sanghvi and the Alteon team. Sanghvi began developing prototypes after high school, formally founding Alteon in 2025 with early backing from Emergent Ventures and 1517. The company now has a 20-person team in Bengaluru and operates from a 10,000-square-foot facility, producing four to five aircraft weekly for testing and conducting over 200 test flights in the past month.