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Lachy Groom backs Indian startup aiming to keep aircraft aloft for a year
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Prominent solo investor Lachy Groom has led a $2.5 million pre-seed funding round for Alteon, a Bengaluru-based startup founded by 20-year-old Samay Sanghvi. The company is developing autonomous aircraft designed to remain airborne for over a year by harvesting energy from ocean winds. The funding round also included participation from the Together Fund. Sanghvi disclosed that Groom decided to invest within the first 30 minutes of their initial meeting.
Alteon's core technology is inspired by the dynamic soaring technique used by albatrosses. The startup is building small, fixed-wing autonomous aircraft that will repeatedly move between layers of air traveling at different speeds above the ocean. This maneuver aims to extract energy from wind shear, breaking the conventional limitation of needing to carry all fuel or battery power onboard. The initial aircraft design features a wingspan of approximately three meters.
The company's first planned application is maritime surveillance, offering governments real-time visibility of activity in their territorial waters. Following a successful test flight over the Bay of Bengal, where the aircraft autonomously completed seven O-shaped cycles at over 62 miles per hour, Alteon's next major milestone is achieving "energy-neutral dynamic soaring." This would allow the aircraft to fly continuously with its propulsion switched off, drawing all necessary energy from the wind.
While experts acknowledge the promise, significant technical challenges remain. Dr. Gabriel Bousquet, an MIT PhD researcher in dynamic soaring, called the low-altitude test a "promising first result" but highlighted the difficulty of reliably extracting enough energy from real-world winds. He noted the aircraft must contend with turbulence, waves, spray, and rain while continuously sensing the ocean surface. Dr. Bharath Swaminathan of IIT Madras confirmed the physics is established but warned that local wind variability complicates sustained energy extraction.
Founder Samay Sanghvi began developing the concept after high school in 2023, learning through building and crashing radio-controlled models. He formally established Alteon in 2025. Investor Lachy Groom acknowledged the inherent technical risk but expressed confidence in the team's ability to solve these ambitious problems. The startup's progress will be closely watched as it attempts to prove the viability of perpetual flight through wind energy harvesting.
