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For most deeptech entrepreneurs, the hardest lesson is not solving complex physics but overcoming their own technical fascination. Professor Satya Chakravarthy, Founder and technical lead of The ePlane Company, explained this clearly at TechSparks 2026, YourStory's flagship event. “The biggest challenge that a deep tech entrepreneur normally would face is what I call the technology trap,” he said. “We have to actually ask the question who cares, and the moment you actually ask the question who cares... even your wife doesn’t care.” Chakravarthy, an aerospace professor at IIT Madras, founded the company to develop electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs. These are battery-powered flying vehicles capable of hovering, taking off, and landing vertically without a runway. In a sector often driven by academic prestige, Chakravarthy insists that financial fundamentals must lead engineering ambitions. For deeptech startups, companies built on breakthroughs in science and engineering, long development timelines and heavy capital commitments mean that technological novelty alone cannot survive. In aerospace, he notes, becoming a unicorn is merely the minimum baseline, and founders must build business cases capable of reaching decacorn scale through healthy revenues and margins. The inspiration for ePlane stemmed from a visit to Toulouse, France, where Chakravarthy discovered that 50 smaller aircraft manufacturers existed alongside global giants. “If there are 50 plane companies in France, maybe plane making is not so difficult... why don’t we give a shot at it?” he recalled. Coming from an academic institution accustomed to international standards, he aimed to build a world-class aircraft directly out of India. The air ambulance strategy To avoid the economic traps that have sunk rival aviation ventures, ePlane has designed a phased commercial rollout. Instead of launching directly into intracity air taxis, which represent a high-volume but low-margin business, ePlane is prioritising electric air ambulances. Emergency medical transport offers higher profit margins at lower production volumes, providing early positive cash flow while supply capacity scales up. This approach also solves the challenge of demand modulation, preventing consumer frustration when early aircraft supply is limited. “First of all don’t let the bubble grow in the first place... be realistic about what is the customer that you can actually cater to,” Chakravarthy explains. Deploying five air ambulances in a congested city like Bangalore transforms emergency healthcare without overwhelming fleet capacity. Only after establishing economic stability will ePlane expand into short-haul air cargo and urban air taxis, where commuters can achieve a five-to-eightfold reduction in travel time for roughly double the cost of an Uber ride. Global standards, Indian economics Crucially, Chakravarthy rejects the notion that Indian innovations must settle for discounted quality. Because gravity and flight dynamics are identical everywhere, aircraft must satisfy rigorous international regulatory benchmarks, such as those set by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Building to global safety standards while keeping production costs low creates a distinct export advantage. As Chakravarthy asserts, “what’s good for India is good for the world.” Engineering decisions at ePlane have been tailored specifically for practical certification and urban operation. The team deliberately avoided the tilt-rotor mechanism, a design where propellers rotate between vertical hover and horizontal flight, because single points of mechanical failure complicate regulatory approval. Instead, they selected a multi-rotor layout backed by redundant systems to ensure a straightforward path to certification. Public anxiety regarding urban air mobility is often misplaced when compared to everyday transit risks. Aviation regulators demand a failure rate of less than one in a billion before granting commercial approval. “If you are driving a car, you are actually driving something that can kill you... planes are much, much safer,” Chakravarthy remarks. Furthermore, by engineering the smallest aircraft footprint in its class, ePlane ensures its flying vehicles can land on existing hospital helipads and urban rooftops, including Metro station plazas. With commercialisation targeted for 2028, ePlane represents a critical test case for the maturing Indian deeptech ecosystem. While government grants have provided crucial runway, private venture capital continues to struggle with long development cycles. “Patient capital still is more or less an oxymoron,” Chakravarthy reflects. Yet by pairing aerospace innovation with disciplined business strategy, India’s deeptech sector is proving that moonshot technologies can land firmly on commercial ground.
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