Acodyne Lands Funding for Electric Cargo Drone Family

Danish start-up Acodyne has raised €2.5 million (about $2.9 million) in a pre-seed funding round to develop a family of uncrewed electric cargo aircraft. Announcing the venture capital backing on June 22, the company said the drones will combine vertical takeoff and fixed-wing operations to carry payloads of between 100 and 500 kilograms (220 to 1,100 pounds) at speeds of up to 450 kilometers per hour (243 knots).

According to Acodyne, the aircraft will provide an alternative to crewed helicopters for missions including military resupply, emergency medical flights, and logistics for the offshore energy sector. The design features detachable wings that allow the aircraft to be transported in standard 20-foot containers.

Acodyne’s propulsion system combines tilting wing-mounted electric ducted fans and a stowable fan in the forward section of the fuselage that is deployed for vertical flight. According to co-founder and CEO Mads Schnack, ducted fans are less expensive to develop than the multiple-rotor configurations favored by quite a few electric aircraft developers, as well as being safer and quieter.

The initial E100 model, with a 100-kilogram payload, will have two of the tilting ducted fans and one in the forward section. This combination of motors will increase to four and two, respectively, for the larger E200 production model, which will have twice the payload. In addition to the main wing, Schnack said that between 15% and 20% of all lift will come from the aircraft fuselage and its forward canard.

As the available power rating increases from an initial 200 kilograms (441 pounds) thrust per motor, Acodyne plans to develop the E500 model, which would be the same size as the E200 but with a 500-kilogram payload. Schnack said his team has been inspired by the ducted fan design developed by the former eVTOL air taxi developer Lilium, which deployed 36 electric motors on its six-passenger aircraft.

Beyond the all-electric versions of the drone family, Acodyne has plans to develop a hybrid-electric powertrain with a fuel-burning turbine engine that would recharge the batteries. This would increase range from 500 to 1,000 kilometers (270 to 540 nm), with around two-thirds of the batteries being removed to make room for the engine.

AI Flight Planning 

The flight controls for the drones will be provided by an undisclosed established avionics partner and have already been used on other aircraft. Acodyne also intends to integrate the eThor AI autonomous stack system developed by the DTU Compute unit at the Technical University of Denmark.

According to Schnack, artificial intelligence could reduce operational workload by managing tasks such as flight planning and ground procedures, such as loading and unloading cargo. However, customers can choose whether to fly the drones “manually” using remote piloting techniques or opt for fully autonomous operations.

Chief commercial officer Jasmina Pless told AIN that Acodyne is discussing commercial applications with prospective operators in Arctic regions needing to access remote communities. The company is also targeting defense use cases, such as replacing the use of ground vehicle convoys to deliver supplies in trips taking no more than 90 minutes compared with four or five hours.

Acodyne said it has completed validation of the concept based on computer modeling and ground tests with its propulsion system. It expects to be ready to start flight tests by the end of 2026 as it targets early operations in 2028.

The pre-seed round was led by Swedish venture capital group Gungnir Capital and Denmark’s PSV Hafnium. It was also supported by the Danish EIFO Export and Investment Fund, SAP9 Group, and GreenUP IV Invest. It intends to launch a new round of fundraising in early 2027 to support construction of the E200 prototype.