Deep-tech start-up Arctus Aerospace has raised USD 2.6 million in a pre-seed funding round backed by Version One Ventures, South Park Commons, gradCapital, and several angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan, Srinivas Narayan, early Ather engineers and leaders from Bounce Infinity and Boom Supersonic. The company is developing large unmanned aircraft capable of flying at 45,000 feet for up to 24 hours, carrying payloads of 250 kilograms for real-time geospatial intelligence. Arctus said the funds will accelerate its ambition to build one of the deepest full-stack unmanned aircraft manufacturing and engineering capabilities entirely in-house. All aircraft design, manufacturing and testing are conducted at its facility in Bangalore. Arctus noted that the high-altitude Earth observation sector has long been constrained by the cost and slow revisit cycles of satellites, while defence-grade HALE (high-altitude, long-endurance) aircraft remain prohibitively expensive. This has created a significant gap for industries that require frequent, high-resolution and on-demand data but lack cost-effective options. The company’s solution delivers high-altitude intelligence at USD 100 per hour, making strategic-grade sensing commercially viable for the first time. Imagery that typically costs USD 10,000 for 500 square kilometres can now be obtained for around USD 500, making high-resolution, real-time intelligence accessible to sectors such as energy, infrastructure, climate monitoring and security. “Our mission is to eliminate all ground infrastructure required to monitor, inspect or understand the planet at centimetre-level resolution,” said Shreepoorna S Rao, founder and chief executive of Arctus Aerospace. “By flying large unmanned aircraft at high altitudes for long durations, we are building the foundation for true zero-infrastructure Earth intelligence.”