cargo-drone
(3)
Poseidon Aerospace
Poseidon Aerospace is a San Francisco startup building unmanned cargo aircraft designed to move heavy loads to places without runways. Founded in 2024 by ex-Amazon engineer David Zagaynov and ex-Lockheed Martin engineer Parker Tenney, the company is developing two purpose-built autonomous platforms - Egret, a short takeoff and landing aircraft, and Heron, an amphibious seaplane - each engineered to carry up to two tons roughly 1,500 miles. Backed by an $11M seed round led by Tamarack Global, Poseidon aims to slash the cost-per-ton-mile of air logistics for both commercial feeder routes and contested military supply missions, with first full-scale flight tests targeted for mid-2026.
Grid Aero
Grid Aero is a Palo Alto aerospace and defense startup building the Lifter-Lite, an autonomous, long-range, heavy-lift cargo drone designed to move thousands of pounds across thousands of miles for military and commercial customers. Founded in 2024 by Arthur Dubois - a veteran of Joby Aviation and Xwing - the company is targeting contested logistics in the Pacific theater and remote civilian routes, with a deliberately simple airframe and AI-enhanced autonomy.
Odys Aviation
Odys Aviation is a Long Beach, California deep-tech aerospace company building long-range, hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Its blown-wing design lets aircraft lift off and land anywhere - no runway needed - while flying farther and carrying more than battery-only eVTOLs. With two platforms, the Laila tactical cargo drone and the larger Alta regional aircraft, Odys targets defense, logistics and passenger markets, and has amassed more than $11 billion in signed letters of intent.