Athira Sethu
Kochi, 27 Nov 2025
Arctus Aerospace designs and manufactures large unmanned aircraft capable of flying for 24 hours at 45,000 feet. The company recently closed a $2.6 million pre-seed funding round with support from Version One Ventures, South Park Commons, gradCapital and investors such as Balaji Srinivasan and Srinivas Narayan, the chief technology officer at OpenAI. This year, Arctus was also part of the South Park Commons Founder Fellowship program.
Arcetus is developing high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft that would commercially avail technology generally accessible through defense programs or expensive satellite systems. Only seven companies around the world have ever built aircraft capable of flying at these altitudes, and none have made it as a commercial offering.
The sector has been weighed down by expensive satellites that provide data at a snail’s pace, and defense-grade aircraft that are very costly and unavailable commercially. This is a gap, because for industries, frequent and high-resolution data is needed, which cannot be provided by the existing systems in an economical way.
Arctus is closing the gap by making data from high altitude available at just $100 per hour, hence affordable for commercial use. Its platform is designed to collect advanced data, including radar, hyperspectral, optical, and infrared imagery, at much lower costs compared to traditional methods. Take, for instance, imagery that would normally cost $10,000 for 500 square kilometers; it can be provided for around $500. This opens up all-new possibilities for verticals such as energy, infrastructure, climate monitoring, and security.
“We want to remove the necessity of having infrastructure on the ground to do the monitoring or analysis of the planet at high resolution,” said Shreepoorna S Rao, Founder and CEO of Arctus Aerospace. “With flying large unmanned aircraft at high altitudes for long periods, we are creating a future where monitoring of the Earth can be done without satellites.
Boris Wertz, Founding Partner of Version One Ventures, said, “Arctus is developing aviation technology that could change how Earth observation data is collected. Their innovative approach and vision could unlock huge value for commercial industries.”
Aditya Agarwal, general partner at South Park Commons, said, “Creating a company like Arctus requires audacity, imagination, and unwavering resolve. These were the qualities we saw in Shree from day one, hence our excitement to partner with him on this journey. “It is a real chance to make a big impact. Currently, Arctus operates aircraft flying at above 10,000 feet to deliver centimeter-level accuracy and real-time data. The company designs and tests its aircraft at its facility in Bangalore that spans 25,000 sq. ft. Arctus Aerospace is ready to revolutionize how Earth observation is done with the breakthrough technology that it possesses.
