Poseidon Aerospace raises $60M ahead of first pilotless test flight
US aviation startup Poseidon Aerospace has closed a $60 million Series A funding round as it prepares for the first test flight of its uncrewed cargo aircraft, Egret, expected by year's end.
US aviation startup Poseidon Aerospace has closed a $60 million Series A funding round ahead of the first test flight of its uncrewed cargo plane, Egret, expected by the end of this year. The company previously raised $11 million in seed funding last year.
The new round was led by early-stage venture capital firm TQ Ventures, with new investments from Hanwha Asset Management, G Squared and JAWS, alongside existing backers Starship Ventures, Draper Associates and Drover Ventures.
The company was founded in 2024 by David Zagaynov, who previously worked in logistics at Amazon, and Parker Tenney, who came from Lockheed Martin. Unlike many other aviation startups experimenting with vertical takeoff and landing technology or electric and hydrogen powertrains, Poseidon has taken a simpler approach, building fixed-wing aircraft powered by conventional combustion engines. Zagaynov argues that the energy density of carbon-based fuels is hard to beat, and that the company's goal is to create a cheap, efficient cargo solution rather than chase flashy new technology for its own sake.
Defense and commercial applications
Poseidon plans to use its aircraft in both the defense and regional commercial cargo sectors. On the defense side, the company aims to serve remote communities and routes with limited or damaged infrastructure, which it says would make a nation's logistics more resilient. On the commercial side, Poseidon does not intend to sell its aircraft but rather to operate its own regional cargo business, competing with carriers such as UPS and FedEx.
According to Zagaynov, uncrewed aircraft reduce costs and allow more flexible route changes, since operations aren't constrained by pilot duty-hour limits. Removing the cockpit and life-support systems also cuts aircraft weight, improving the ratio of payload to empty weight.
Last year the company built and flew a smaller-scale prototype called Seagull, and it has now expanded into a former Navy hangar in Alameda, California, to build its full-size aircraft, which has a 50-foot wingspan.
