Technology
ePlane is looking to boost the Indian government’s interest in air taxis with a new $14 million round
A pointy increase in the number of personal vehicles and a decline in the use of public and non-motorized transport have resulted in increasing traffic congestion in India, the world’s most populous country, which also struggles with relatively narrower roads and insufficient parking spaces in cities. New Delhi recognizes these challenges and is looking for new ways to quickly meet them.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a September event that air taxis do will soon change into a “reality in India”, indicating the government’s interest in supporting the new mode of transport. Also the national aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation recently formulated rules regarding vertiports prepare the ground for air taxis.
The ePlane company I’m riding this wave.
The startup, founded in 2019 by IIT Madras aerospace engineering professor Satya Chakravarthy, is constructing an electrical vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle called e200x, months after developing unmanned drones for transportation and camera applications. Chakravarthy has a strong pedigree: he is also a co-founder and advisor to Indian space tech startups including Agnikul and GalaxEye, in addition to Indian hyperloop-focused startup TuTr Hyperloop.
Chakravarthy told TechCrunch that ePlane has secured mental property rights while developing urban commuter and cargo aircraft that feature relatively low airspeed and a compact wingspan of 8 meters, as opposed to typical air taxis with wingspans of 12 to 16 meters. Thanks to this, it’ll give you the option to land in tight spaces and make many short trips – up to 60 a day – on a single charge, he says. It claims commuters would cut back their journey times by as much as 85%, at a cost lower than twice the fare they typically pay for an Uber ride.
Most eVTOL vehicles are currently multicopters similar to industrial drones, including air taxis equipped with spokes and vertical rotors. Chakravarthy said that while this configuration is easier to develop and implement in the market, it doesn’t allow for longer distances on a single battery charge. ePlane selected a lift-plus-cruise configuration, in which the vehicle has a winged architecture like a typical airplane, but with vertical, drone-like rotors.
“It has been proven that this configuration is actually very reliable because we’ve redundancy in terms of the vertical rotors carrying the weight of the aircraft, while the wings contribute to the gradual balancing of the weight in order that there is no lack of lift during the transition from vertical take-off and hover to flight forward,” he said.
The startup also developed a technology called synergistic lift, which uses vertical rotors even in forward flight to keep the wings sufficiently compact.
Chakravarthy told TechCrunch that ePlane produces aircraft components at its IIT Madras facility, including airframe parts, and designs seats and propellers. The startup outsources the cells but assembles the aircraft’s batteries in-house to manage the plane’s center of gravity.
The startup goals to commercialize its electric air taxi in mid-to-second half of 2026, after obtaining required certifications from Indian and global authorities and creating a prototype of the aircraft in the first half of 2025, Chakravarthy told TechCrunch.
Prior to testing the vehicle, ePlane raised $14 million in a Series B round co-led by Speciale Invest and Singaporean company Antares Ventures. Micelio Mobility, Naval Ravikant, Java Capital, Samarthya Investment Advisors, Redstart (from Naukri) and Anicut also participated in the equity-only round. The round valued the startup at $46 million post-money – greater than double its previous valuation of $21 million.
The fresh capital will help ePlane, which employs greater than 100 people, gain global regulatory certifications and expand its commercialization efforts.
India’s success has helped ePlane expand into other markets, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia and Europe.
“We work with the belief that in the future, what is good for India will be good for the world,” Chakravarthy said.
Technology
US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident
Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.
In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”
Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.
Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.
The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.
The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.
More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)
Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.
The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.
Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.
In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.
According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.
However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.
Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.
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