Sarla Aviation - Campus Fund

Portfolio · Investment Note

Sarla Aviation.

Building India’s first electric flying taxi — a six-seat eVTOL designed to slip above the gridlock and turn 90-minute commutes into 8-minute hops.

Urban air mobility is no longer science fiction. McKinsey projects thousands of eVTOLs above our cities by 2030 — and Sarla is building India’s contender. While the world’s commuters lose entire weeks to traffic each year, the airspace 1,800 feet above is empty, regulated, and ready to be claimed.

01 — The Opportunity

A market measured in hours of life lost.

The urban air mobility market — led by eVTOLs, or flying taxis — is driven by a stack of powerful tailwinds. With urban populations booming and ground traffic congestion reaching crisis levels, eVTOLs offer a revolutionary fix to mobility and productivity for businesses and individuals alike.

While existing road infrastructure stays choked with vehicles, urban air mobility unlocks a vast domain ripe for innovation: low-altitude urban airspace. eVTOLs navigate this new frontier, bypassing gridlocked streets to move passengers and time-sensitive goods with unprecedented speed and efficiency — at price points approaching the cost of a premium taxi.

0 hrs

Average lost to traffic per urban dweller in 2022 (INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard)

0 B

Urban inhabitants today — 56% of the world’s population

0 X

Projected growth in global urban population by 2050

0 /10

Humans expected to live in cities by 2050 (World Bank)

Meet Shunya. Six passengers, one pilot, seven electric motors. India’s most capable eVTOL — engineered for the cost of a premium cab, the speed of a small jet, and the silence of an electric drivetrain.

02 — The Solution

Not a prototype. A platform.

Sarla Aviation is soaring toward a stratospheric shift in how India views intercity and intracity travel. Their Shunya eVTOL is engineered to seat six passengers and a pilot, carry up to 680 kg — the highest payload in the eVTOL category — and cruise at 250 km/h over distances of up to 160 km.

Sarla’s play isn’t just to operate a fleet. It’s to become the underlying platform: building the aircraft and licensing it to aviation incumbents like Air India and IndiGo, and to mobility operators like Uber and Ola who need a new vehicle for the airspace business they don’t yet have. Lilium, Joby and Archer have proved the global category exists. Sarla is building the version designed for India’s density, distance, and price point.

"Should we complete a degree that serves the purpose of becoming founders — or just become founders?"

- Adrian Schmidt, Co-founder & CEO — on dropping out of his Fulbright

03 — The Founders

Three founders. One ambition.

The story of Sarla’s founding defies conventional boundaries. It’s a trio of operators who’ve already built eVTOLs at the world’s leading programs — and decided India was the geography most worth doing it for.

Co-Founder & CEO

Adrian Schmidt

Fulbright Scholar (left to build)

German prodigy who left home to build in India. Previously at Lilium — the pioneering eVTOL company — with prior design work at Mercedes-Benz, Nio and Volkswagen. Dropped out of his Fulbright Scholarship in the U.S. to co-found Sarla.

Co-Founder & CTO

Rakesh Gaonkar

Lilium founding team

Veteran of the eVTOL space and part of Lilium’s founding team. Deep automotive design pedigree — GM, Italdesign, Mahindra, Citroën, Audi, BMW — bringing decades of vehicle engineering to the cockpit.

Co-Founder

Shivam Chauhan

Ex-Joby Aviation

Former battery management engineer at Joby Aviation — one of the few people in India who has shipped energy systems for production-intent eVTOLs. Owns the most safety-critical subsystem of the aircraft.

One more detail. The company is named after Sarla Thakral — who in 1936, at just 21, became the first Indian woman to earn a pilot’s license. The trio built Sarla Aviation to honor that pioneer’s spirit and put it back in the air.

Validation

Backed alongside India’s most respected investors

Accel ● Binny Bansal ● Nikhil Kamath

04 — The Verdict

The skies are the next infrastructure layer.

Campus Fund takes pride in championing fearless student entrepreneurs daring to dream big and challenge the status quo. Sarla Aviation sits at the vanguard of a new age — where the skies above our cities beckon with the promise of unparalleled mobility, connectivity, and productivity.

India’s combination of density, congestion, regulatory ambition, and engineering talent creates one of the most attractive launch markets globally for urban air mobility. While Lilium, Joby and Archer have proven the category, Sarla is building the version sized, priced, and engineered for the geography that needs it most.

Buckle up. The elevated future of urban transportation is taking flight — and Sarla Aviation is leading the charge toward this transcendent new frontier.

Sarla Aviation.

Sector

Urban Air Mobility

Stage

Series A

HQ

Bengaluru

Founded

October 2023