As reported by ET, billionaire Deepinder Goyal has reportedly teamed up with Surobhi Das, the former chief operating officer of Zomato, to develop an aircraft firm named LAT aircraft.
The firm, which is now operating in stealth mode, intends to connect smaller communities by designing and developing inexpensive 12- to 24-seater Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) aircraft.
According to the article, Goyal has contributed $20 million to the firm and is serving as a mentor and investor in addition to his non-executive role. Das will be in charge of running the business on a daily basis.
Increasing funding LAT In order to hire professionals from a variety of fields, including material sciences, hybrid propulsion systems, and aerodynamics, aerospace is also negotiating a $50 million seed fundraising round.
According to the article, the Delhi-based business will be producing airplanes with a 1,500-kilometer range. Das worked with Bain & Company before leaving Zomato in November 2023.
Surobhi Das’s LinkedIn update is captivating.
“Deepinder and I would often travel along discussing how regional aviation should really be effortless, affordable, and accessible while building Zomato,” says the LinkedIn update by Das. “That is exactly what we are trying to build at LAT. At LAT Aerospace, we are rethinking how we fly; we design low-cost short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft for between 12 and 24 passengers to keep cities, towns, and communities more connected than ever.”
The ultra-compact air-stops will be as small as parking lots: the planes will leave and arrive at those places. Just image: dozens of air-stops across the major cities to link seamlessly into hundreds of smaller cities. One can almost visualize there being no baggage belts or security bottlenecks or costly airport infrastructure-because, as she put it, regional air travel “doesn’t need them.”
“As for us, we’re in Delhi NCR, and building a world-class team of engineers, designers, and builders to tackle some of the most difficult problems in aircraft design, aerodynamics, materials & composites, hybrid propulsion systems, and turbo-machinery,” says Das.
Deepinder Goyal shared Das’s post with the words: “Excited to bring to life the decade-old brainchild of Surobhi Das. Surobhi is looking for the founding engineering team for LAT, which covers the following domains-aircraft design, aerodynamics, materials and composites, hybrid propulsion systems, turbo-machinery.”
