Lachy Groom, a notable solo investor, has invested in a Bengaluru-based startup, Alteon, which aims to keep an aircraft airborne for over a year by harnessing energy from ocean winds. Founded by 20-year-old Samay Sanghvi, Alteon announced on Tuesday that it secured $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Groom, with additional participation from Together Fund. The startup is developing autonomous aircraft that utilize dynamic soaring, a technique used by albatrosses to extract energy from wind. Sanghvi stated that Groom expressed interest in investing within the first 30 minutes of their initial meeting.
Traditional aircraft rely on fuel or battery power for flight, but Alteon seeks to overcome this limitation by creating small, fixed-wing autonomous aircraft capable of extracting energy from wind shear above the ocean. This dynamic soaring technique involves the aircraft moving between layers of air traveling at different speeds. Sanghvi mentioned, "Once you build airplanes that can stay in the air for more than a year, there are millions of things you can do with them." The initial application for the aircraft will be maritime surveillance, providing governments with real-time visibility into activities in their waters.
The startup plans to develop an aircraft with a wingspan of approximately three meters that will fly close to the ocean's surface, utilizing a cycle of climbing and turning through faster-moving air to gain energy from the wind. Eventually, Alteon aims to use its propellers as turbines to convert some of that energy into electricity to recharge onboard batteries.
Currently, the startup has not demonstrated that its aircraft can sustain flight using energy harvested through dynamic soaring. However, it has conducted tests of its autonomous flight system over the Bay of Bengal, where the aircraft autonomously completed seven O-shaped cycles at speeds exceeding 62 miles per hour while flying within one meter of the water's surface.
Alteon's next significant milestone, according to Sanghvi, is achieving "energy-neutral dynamic soaring," which would enable the aircraft to fly continuously with its propulsion switched off by extracting enough energy from the wind.
Dr. Gabriel Bousquet, an aerospace and robotics engineer based in Silicon Valley, described Alteon's low-altitude flight over water as a "promising first result." He emphasized that the more challenging task will be to prove that the aircraft can reliably extract sufficient energy from real-world winds for extended flight durations. Bousquet noted that flying low enough to harvest energy safely presents difficulties, as the aircraft must navigate turbulence, waves, spray, rain, and varying light conditions while continuously sensing and reacting to a dynamic ocean surface.
Dr. Bharath Swaminathan, who studied the stability of dynamic soaring during his PhD at IIT Madras, acknowledged the established physics behind the concept and commended Alteon's efforts. He stated that keeping an aircraft airborne for several days using dynamic soaring would be a significant achievement. However, he cautioned that while large-scale wind conditions may be predictable, local wind shear and turbulence can vary greatly, complicating the aircraft's ability to continuously extract energy from the wind. Some challenges may only become apparent through real-world flight testing.
Groom recognized the technical risks associated with this investment, stating, "Ambitious problems are always going to come with risks. For me, it came down to believing Samay and the Alteon team are the ones to figure them out."
Sanghvi began developing what would become Alteon immediately after high school in 2023, learning to build aircraft by creating and testing radio-controlled models before moving on to early prototypes. He officially founded Alteon in 2025 and received initial support from Emergent Ventures and 1517.
Currently, Alteon employs a team of 20 in Bengaluru and operates from a 10,000-square-foot facility, producing four to five aircraft weekly for testing and having conducted over 200 test flights in the past month.