Lachy Groom bets on Bengaluru startup’s year-long autonomous flight

The pre-seed round, led by prominent solo investor Lachy Groom with participation from Together Fund, signals confidence in Samay Sanghvi’s vision to revolutionize maritime surveillance. The startup’s design relies on dynamic soaring, a maneuver where fixed-wing aircraft extract energy by oscillating between air layers moving at different speeds. While the physics of the concept are established, translating them into reliable, year-long flight remains a significant engineering hurdle.

Alteon recently completed a test over the Bay of Bengal, where a prototype autonomously executed seven O-shaped cycles at speeds exceeding 62 miles per hour, just one meter above the water. Achieving "energy-neutral" flight—where propulsion systems can be switched off entirely—remains the next major milestone. Aerospace experts, including Dr. Gabriel Bousquet and Dr. Bharath Swaminathan, highlight that the real-world environment presents unpredictable turbulence, sea spray, and complex wind shear that go far beyond controlled testing. Despite these risks, the 20-person team is scaling rapidly, producing four to five aircraft weekly at their Bengaluru facility to accelerate their flight testing program.