The air we take for granted — for commuting, cargo, or a weekend escape — is quietly evolving. Fuel prices, environmental targets, pilot shortages and an insatiable demand for faster, cheaper logistics are pushing aviation to adopt technology at a rate unseen in decades. From electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) craft to drone logistics and new airline launches in high-growth markets, 2025 looks like the year flight technologies move from pilots’ sketches to revenue.
Below are ten companies — a mix of air-taxi pioneers, freight drones, electric aircraft builders and fast-scaling airlines (including India) — with the founders you should know and the funding signals that tell you they’re ready to scale.
1. Joby Aviation —
“Commercial eVTOL, getting close to liftoff”
What they do: Joby builds a piloted electric air taxi designed for short urban hops with near-silent operation and commercial routes in mind.
Founders: JoeBen Bevirt (founder & CEO).
Funding & investors: Major strategic investments (notably Toyota) and recent capital injections to support certification and production — Joby closed a large investment to back certification and manufacturing.
Why watch: Joby has moved from prototype into production prep and strategic manufacturing alliances — that makes them a front-runner in urban air mobility.
Next move: Certification, manufacturing partnerships, first city-scale routes.
2. Archer Aviation —
“From prototype to production runway”
What they do: eVTOL developer focused on piloted urban air mobility with a production-first approach.
Founders: Adam Goldstein (co-founder) and others from the Silicon Valley eVTOL cohort.
Funding & investors: Raised institutional capital in 2025 to boost development and defense work, including a $300M+ raise that strengthened liquidity and runway.
Why watch: Archer’s recent funding shows investor appetite for hybrid use-cases (commercial + defense), giving them diversified go-to-market routes.
Next move: Accelerate aircraft development and pursue defense/industrial use-cases alongside urban services.
3. Lilium —
“European flying taxis, restructuring to survive”
What they do: Germany-based eVTOL maker with a vectored-thrust design aimed at regional air routes and urban interconnectivity.
Founders: Daniel Wiegand and co-founders.
Funding & investors: Lilium secured investor consortium support in 2025 to stabilise operations and continue testing, signalling both challenge and continued investor interest.
Why watch: Lilium’s European footprint and its investor rescue show that the continent remains a testing ground for the next generation of low-emission short flights.
Next move: Restructuring to focus on certification milestones and strategic partnerships.
4. Vertical Aerospace —
“British eVTOL aiming for certified pilots and production”
What they do: Building piloted eVTOL aircraft for urban/regional routes.
Founders: Stephen Fitzpatrick (chair/major backer) and a leadership team focused on certification.
Funding & investors: Public offerings and capital raises (including underwritten offerings in 2025) to support transition from prototypes to production.
Why watch: Vertical’s progress on flight testing plus fresh capital make them a contender among the UK/european players.
Next move: Certification flight tests and moving toward production supply-chain contracts.
5. Wisk Aero —
“Autonomous eVTOL with deep industry partnerships”
What they do: Developing an autonomous (pilotless) air taxi platform with an emphasis on safety and autonomous systems.
Founders / origins: Evolved from earlier Kitty Hawk and Boeing partnerships.
Funding & investors: Backed through large private funding and industry partnerships; investor profile shows deep aerospace ties.
Why watch: Wisk represents the ‘autonomy first’ approach — the pathway to lower operating costs if regulatory hurdles can be solved.
Next move: Certification for autonomous operations and strategic aerospace alliances.
6. EHang —
“From China to global drone-air taxi experiments”
What they do: Developer of autonomous passenger drones and cargo drones — an early mover in the passenger-drone space.
Founders: Huazhi Hu (founder and CEO).
Funding & investors: Public market presence with ongoing strategic and institutional backing as EHang pilots demonstrate real deployments.
Why watch: EHang’s large, EV-drone deployments and regulatory experiments in Asia make it a real test case for urban autonomy outside Western markets.
Next move: Expand operational pilots, secure regional certifications, scale manufacturing.
7. Zipline —
“Logistics drones scaling national healthcare-grade delivery”
What they do: Drone logistics focused on medical & essential deliveries, operating beyond visual-line-of-sight drone networks in multiple countries.
Founders: Keller Rinaudo (co-founder & CEO), Keenan Wyrobek (co-founder) and team.
Funding & investors: Large venture rounds across 2020–2024, with multi-hundred-million raises and major backers anchoring global roll-outs (high valuation and strong capital history).
Why watch: Zipline has proven an economic model for useful, regulated drone delivery — that’s supply-chain disruption rather than novelty.
Next move: Expand beyond medical deliveries into broader logistics partnerships and scale networks in regulated markets.
8. Akasa Air (India) —
“New-age Indian airline built for low costs and scale”
What they do: New Indian low-cost carrier launched with a modern fleet and a tech-first operations model.
Founders / leadership: Vinay Dube (Founder & CEO) is the public face and leader spearheading growth.
Funding & investors: Strategic investments and backers landed during early scaling; the airline has completed strategic financing rounds to support fleet and network growth.
Why watch: India is the world’s fastest-growing aviation market; Akasa’s tech-driven low-cost play makes it a scalpel for new-economy air travel in South Asia.
Next move: Route expansion across India, fleet orders, and potential regional codeshares or alliances.
9. IndiGo (India) —
“Market-dominant low-cost airline with scale advantage”
What they do: India’s largest airline by market share, built on a high-utilisation, single-aisle Airbus model.
Founders / leadership: Co-founded by Rahul Bhatia (InterGlobe) and Rakesh Gangwal; now an institutional heavyweight in Indian aviation.
Funding & investors: Publicly listed with institutional ownership; large aircraft orders and capital manoeuvres drive scale advantage.
Why watch: IndiGo’s network density and fleet scale shape pricing and route economics across India — any aviation play in the region must account for its presence.
Next move: Fleet expansion, regional network densification and keeping load factors high as India demand grows.
10. Eviation (Alice) —
“Electric regional aircraft, on pause but still strategic”
What they do: Fixed-wing electric aircraft (Alice) designed for short regional hops — a complement to eVTOL approaches.
Founders: Omer Bar-Yohay, Omri Regev and Aviv Tzidon (founders / early leadership).
Funding & investors: Historically secured substantial early investments and customer LOIs; 2025 saw pauses and workforce reductions as the company seeks fresh capital.
Why watch: Fixed-wing electric aircraft remain a potential game changer for short regional aviation — but capital intensity and battery limits mean this play will be a test of execution and funding discipline.
Next move: Secure new investment, rebaseline production plans and convert LOIs into firm orders if funding is restored.
How to read the runway (what this mix tells you)
- Capital intensity is real — aircraft and certification cost serious money. Expect more restructuring rounds and strategic industry partners rather than pure VC-only stories. (See Joby, Archer, Lilium signals above.)
- Regulation is the throttle — pilotless or autonomous concepts will scale only where regulators, safety data, and public acceptance progress together.
- Diversified routes to revenue — many firms pursue defense, cargo, or logistics wings to fund passenger ambitions.
- Emerging markets matter — India, Southeast Asia and parts of Africa are where new airlines and drone logistics can find rapid adoption and measurable ROI. (Examples: Akasa, IndiGo, Zipline.)
Final thoughts (McArrows note — short and practical)
Here’s the story in one line: capital plus a clear path to certification or commercial revenue creates windows of opportunity — and that window is when product, messaging and partnerships actually move the needle. Whether it’s an eVTOL that needs local regulatory lobbying and city partnerships, a drone logistics provider launching with national health ministries, or a new Indian carrier scaling routes region-by-region — each needs tight product positioning, case studies that prove adoption, and a go-to-market engine that matches investor expectations.
If you’re an aviation founder or operator in the scale-junction — raised funding, proved the concept, now need to grow — McArrows helps translate technical credibility into market traction: product positioning, partner outreach, and demand capture that converts capital into routes, bookings and enterprise contracts.
