Flying taxi startup ePlane Co to launch first prototype in June

Professor Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy of IIT Madras is a co-founder in at least six startups including ePlane Company and Agnikul Cosmos

Chennai-based flying taxi startup The ePlane Co is set to launch its first prototype in June, CEO Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy said on April 8.

Participating in a panel discussion on "Deeptech and Artificial Intelligence" on the inaugural day of the two-day News18 Rising Bharat Summit in New Delhi, Chakravarthy said, "We are expecting to have our prototype (of flying taxi) by June. The next prototype by the end of this year, and the third one, next year. The plan to go into commercialisation will take two years.”

He was in conversation with PeakXV Partners and Surge managing director Rajan Anandan and Vionix Biosciences CEO Vivek Wadhwa.

Chakravarthy's comments come at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem has come under the scanner following commerce minister Piyush Goyal's comparison with the China and on the need to concentrate on fields such as deeptech.

"We are comparing (ourselves) with China. China in the last 20 years have progressed leaps and beyond. They have progressed beyond the West," said Chakravarthy, who is also an aerospace engineering professor at IIT-Madras, said.

"We are kind of assuming that that if we do deeptech, it is going to be beneficial for India. Is it really going to help India's GDP? We need to think these things through."

Chakravarthy, also a co-founder of six deeptech startups, is optimistic about India making its mark in the ecosystem by the end of the decade.

"When they step out of (institutions) can we intoxicate them with seed funding? Funding should not be easily available. They should know the value. But seed funding is an intoxicant. It can hook you," he said.