Tata Elxsi, the design and technology services arm of the Tata Group, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation on September 1, 2026, to co-develop Shunya, a six-seater plus one pilot electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi. The aircraft is being designed for a range of more than 300 km, and its first flight is targeted within the next 18 to 24 months, after which certification activities are expected to follow. The deal places one of India’s largest engineering services firms alongside one of its most-watched aerospace startups in a race to make commercial urban air mobility a reality in the country.
Tata Elxsi and Sarla Aviation Sign MoU for the Shunya Air Taxi
The MoU was signed at Sarla Aviation’s newly inaugurated headquarters in Bengaluru, in the presence of Manoj Raghavan, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Elxsi, Adrian Schmidt, Co-Founder and CEO of Sarla Aviation, and Rakesh Gaonkar, Co-Founder and CTO of Sarla Aviation, along with members of the aerospace and engineering teams of both companies.
Under the agreement, Tata Elxsi will provide engineering support across avionics, including flight control systems, software integration, testing, verification and validation, and certification. Sarla Aviation will lead the design, development and type certification of the Shunya platform. The partnership also creates room to extend the collaboration into sensor-fusion-based navigation software, industrial and structural design, and airworthiness test support.
Shunya is being designed for flight operations exceeding 300 km, combining vertical take-off and landing capability with the efficiency of fixed-wing cruise flight. This configuration allows runway-independent operations while improving overall propulsion efficiency. The first flight is targeted within 18 to 24 months, with certification activities expected to follow once the aircraft has flown.
Who Are the Two Companies Behind the Partnership?
Tata Elxsi: The Design and Technology Arm of the Tata Group
Tata Elxsi Limited is the design and technology services arm of the Tata Group, founded on May 5, 1989, in Bangalore. The company is registered under Corporate Identity Number (CIN) L85110KA1989PLC009968, with its registered and corporate office located on ITPB Road, Whitefield, Bengaluru 560048.
Tata Elxsi provides design-led engineering and digital services across transportation, healthcare, media and communications. Its offerings are organised under two business segments: Software Development and Services (SDS), and Systems Integration and Support (SIS). The company works across the automotive, broadcast, communications, healthcare and transportation industries, combining design thinking with digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, mobility, virtual reality, and cybersecurity.
The company employs more than 10,600 professionals and operates in 16 countries, with a presence in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Tata Elxsi is listed on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) under the ticker TATAELXSI, and its parent company is Tata Sons Private Limited. The current CEO and Managing Director is Manoj Raghavan, who led the Shunya partnership signing. Earlier in 2025, Tata Elxsi also signed an agreement with CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories covering UAVs, urban air mobility and eVTOL technologies.
Sarla Aviation: The Bengaluru-Based eVTOL Startup
Sarla Aviation Private Limited is an Indian aerospace company headquartered in Bengaluru. It was founded in October 2023 by Adrian Schmidt and Rakesh Gaonkar, both of whom previously worked at the German eVTOL company Lilium. Shivam Chauhan, who returned to India from the United States, joined the founding team around the same time.
The company is named after Sarla Thakral, India’s first female pilot. It develops electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft for urban air mobility. As of mid-2025, Sarla Aviation had a team of around 71 employees, distributed across India, Germany, Spain, Finland and the Netherlands. Its total funding stands at $10 million, raised across a pre-seed round, a seed round, and a Series A1 round.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Sarla Aviation Private Limited |
| Headquarters | Bengaluru, Karnataka |
| Founded | October 2023 |
| Founders | Adrian Schmidt, Rakesh Gaonkar (with Shivam Chauhan) |
| Total funding | $10 million |
| Lead investor | Accel |
| Notable backers | Binny Bansal, Nikhil Kamath, Sriharsha Majety, IndiGo Ventures |
| Flagship product | Shunya (six-seater eVTOL) |
| Named after | Sarla Thakral, India’s first female pilot |
In January 2025, the company unveiled a full-scale static prototype of the Shunya air taxi at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025 in New Delhi. By December 2025, it began ground testing on a half-scale eVTOL demonstrator called SYLLA SYL-X1, which has a 7.5-metre wingspan and is described as the largest privately developed eVTOL demonstrator in India.
Inside the Shunya eVTOL Aircraft
Shunya is Sarla Aviation’s flagship electric air taxi. The name comes from the Sanskrit word for “zero,” reflecting the company’s zero-emission, all-electric design philosophy.
The aircraft is a hybrid-lift-and-cruise eVTOL, meaning it can take off and land vertically using distributed electric propulsion, and then transition into efficient fixed-wing cruise flight once airborne. This is what enables runway-independent operations. Shunya is built to accommodate one pilot and six passengers, making it one of the larger air taxi platforms currently under development globally. Sarla claims it offers the highest payload in its category, at 680 kg, allowing 35 percent more passengers per flight than several western competitors.
The prototype displayed in 2025 uses six propellers (three on each side), with redundancy on every propeller for safety. It runs on four double-isolated battery packs that power seven electric motors. The aircraft has a maximum speed of 250 km/h and a range of up to 160 km with current batteries, though the production Shunya platform is being designed for more than 300 km per flight. The aircraft is optimised for short trips of 20 to 30 km, the kind of urban commutes that currently take hours by road in cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune.
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Configuration | Hybrid-lift-and-cruise eVTOL |
| Capacity | 1 pilot + 6 passengers |
| Propulsion | 7 electric motors, 6 propellers (3 per side), with full redundancy |
| Battery | 4 double-isolated battery packs |
| Top speed | 250 km/h |
| Range | 160 km with current batteries; 300+ km target for production model |
| Payload | 680 kg |
| Optimised trip length | 20 to 30 km |
| Full-scale wingspan | 15 metres |
| Demonstrator (SYLLA SYL-X1) wingspan | 7.5 metres |
| First flight target | Within 18 to 24 months (from September 2026) |
The next demonstrator, SYLLA 2.0, is intended to tackle one of the hardest technical challenges in any eVTOL programme: the transition from vertical lift into sustained wing-borne flight. Data from SYLLA SYL-X1 is already being used to refine Shunya’s flight-critical systems.
Division of Roles Under the MoU
The MoU between the two companies divides responsibilities along clear technical lines, based on each side’s existing strengths.
Tata Elxsi will provide engineering support across:
- Avionics and flight control systems: Tata Elxsi has deep experience in flight-critical software and digital engineering, including work on battery management, flight controls, avionics software, and systems integration.
- Software integration, testing, verification and validation (V&V): This is the rigorous process of ensuring that every software module on the aircraft works correctly and safely under all conditions.
- Certification support: Helping Sarla Aviation put together the technical evidence required to obtain a type certificate from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
- Possible extensions: sensor-fusion-based navigation software, industrial and structural design, and airworthiness test support.
Sarla Aviation will remain in charge of:
- Overall design and development of the Shunya platform.
- Type certification of the aircraft under DGCA rules.
The split is significant because Sarla is now moving from technology demonstration into the harder phase of building a passenger-carrying aircraft. Flight controls, avionics integration, V&V and certification evidence become the central challenges at this stage. Adrian Schmidt, Co-Founder and CEO of Sarla Aviation, said Tata Elxsi’s experience in complex aerospace systems gives the startup access to capabilities that are critical as it takes Shunya from concept to reality. Manoj Raghavan of Tata Elxsi added that the partnership opens up opportunities to apply the company’s expertise across aerospace, mobility and digital technologies to entirely new aviation platforms.
The collaboration is also expected to feed into capabilities for logistics, air ambulance services and defence-related applications, beyond the core Shunya programme.
Timeline, Funding and the Bigger Roadmap
The Tata Elxsi partnership is the latest in a series of moves that have shaped Sarla Aviation’s trajectory since its founding in 2023.
- October 2023: Sarla Aviation founded in Bengaluru by Adrian Schmidt, Rakesh Gaonkar and Shivam Chauhan.
- January 2025: Full-scale static prototype of Shunya unveiled at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025 in New Delhi. The company also raised $10 million in a Series A1 round led by Accel, with participation from Binny Bansal (Flipkart co-founder), Nikhil Kamath (Zerodha co-founder), Sriharsha Majety (Swiggy co-founder) and other angel investors.
- February 2025: The Shunya prototype was showcased at the Invest Karnataka 2025 summit in Bangalore, with company officials indicating that fares for the planned Electronic City to Kempegowda International Airport route could start at around ₹900.
- December 2025: Ground testing began on the half-scale demonstrator SYLLA SYL-X1 at Sarla Aviation’s Bengaluru facility.
- April 2026: IndiGo, India’s largest airline, through its investment arm IndiGo Ventures, acquired an equity stake in Sarla Aviation for ₹10 crore. This was IndiGo’s first direct investment in an eVTOL company.
- September 1, 2026: MoU signed with Tata Elxsi to co-develop Shunya.
- Next 18 to 24 months: First flight of Shunya targeted.
Sarla Aviation’s broader plan envisions starting commercial air taxi services in Bengaluru, with the Electronics City to Kempegowda International Airport route as the launch corridor, before expanding to Mumbai, Delhi and Pune. The company also plans to offer a free air ambulance service alongside its commercial ride-sharing operations in the first phase.
In November 2025, Sarla Aviation signed a separate MoU with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to set up a 500-acre aerospace giga campus in Anantapur. The project involves an initial investment of ₹1,300 crore and is designed to manufacture up to 1,000 aircraft a year. The facility is expected to host composites lines, powertrain systems, a wind tunnel, a 2 km runway, VTOL testing pads, R&D labs, pilot training facilities and MRO infrastructure. The company is also working with the Andhra Pradesh government on dedicated UAM corridors and vertiports, laying the groundwork for commercial air taxi services across major South Indian cities by 2029.
India’s eVTOL Regulatory Landscape
The Tata Elxsi-Sarla deal is unfolding against a fast-maturing Indian regulatory framework for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, built around the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s civil aviation regulator.
The DGCA has issued several key documents over the past two years:
- AEAC 01 of 2024 (issued September 11, 2024): Guidance material on type certification of vertical take-off and landing capable aircraft (VCA). It lays down airworthiness criteria for electric VTOLs with a pilot onboard, a maximum take-off weight of up to 5,700 kg, and intended use for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). It was issued under CAR-21 and Rule 133A of the Aircraft Rules, 1937.
- ADAC 01 of 2024 (issued September 5, 2024): Guidance material on the design, operation and authorisation of vertiports.
- FCL 01 of 2025 (issued April 30, 2025): Guidance material for training and endorsement of VTOL capable aircraft (VCA) pilot ratings.
The DGCA has set up six working groups covering vertiports, type certification, crew licensing, UAS traffic management (UTM), and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). The Drone Rules 2021 and the Aircraft Rules, 1937 are being used as the legal foundation to facilitate sandbox trials for eVTOL platforms. India is also collaborating with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) on these frameworks.
Potential sites for regulatory sandboxes have been surveyed near Mandvi in Gujarat’s Kutch district and near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. The broader policy push includes a national Vertiports network, dedicated air corridors for AAM aircraft, training for Air Traffic Management (ATM) personnel, and incentives for indigenous VCA manufacturing through Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes.
The World Economic Forum’s “Skyways to the Future” report, developed with India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DGCA in November 2024, frames India’s AAM roadmap. It calls for an integrated vertiport network, a robust regulatory ecosystem, and advanced technologies to enable safe, sustainable and scalable air mobility.
The Significance of This Partnership
The MoU carries weight on three fronts: the companies themselves, India’s aerospace ambitions, and the broader market opportunity.
For Tata Elxsi, the deal is a natural extension of its work in aerospace, mobility and digital engineering. The company already works on battery management, flight controls, avionics software, and systems integration. Advanced air mobility ties directly into the connected, autonomous and electrified transformation that is reshaping global transportation. Jayaraj Rajapandian, Head of Aerospace at Tata Elxsi, said the partnership signals how quickly aerospace innovation is evolving in India, and that fly-by-wire, electrified and connected aircraft are creating entirely new opportunities.
For Sarla Aviation, the deal gives the startup access to flight-critical engineering talent and certification experience that is hard to build in-house at this stage. With Tata Elxsi handling avionics and certification support, Sarla can focus on the design, development and type certification of the Shunya platform, while also extending into logistics, air ambulance services and defence-related applications.
For India’s eVTOL ecosystem, the deal is a signal that homegrown engineering services firms are willing to back indigenous aerospace startups. It complements IndiGo Ventures’ earlier equity investment in Sarla Aviation, the proposed ₹1,300 crore Anantapur giga campus, and the government’s broader push to make India a hub for advanced air mobility. Together, these moves put Sarla among the most serious contenders to operate India’s first commercial air taxi service, with Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune as the likely launch markets.
The market opportunity is sizeable. India’s air taxi market is estimated at $0.75 billion in 2026 and is projected to reach $5.93 billion by 2034, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.5 percent. India’s overall advanced air mobility market is expected to expand from $1.42 billion in 2025 to $8.97 billion by 2031, at a CAGR of 35.2 percent. The broader AAM market in India, which includes air taxis, drones and other platforms, stood at $275.9 million in 2024 and is forecast to reach $4.23 billion by 2035.
Among air taxi sub-segments, piloted aircraft currently dominate with an estimated 68 percent market share in 2026, since the DGCA framework requires a certified pilot onboard. The intracity segment, covering routes of 15 to 80 km within metropolitan areas, holds around 39 percent of the market and is expected to grow fastest as vertiport density increases.
Key Takeaways
- Tata Elxsi and Sarla Aviation signed an MoU on September 1, 2026 at Sarla’s newly inaugurated Bengaluru headquarters to co-develop the Shunya eVTOL air taxi.
- The Shunya aircraft is designed to carry 1 pilot and 6 passengers, with a target range of more than 300 km per flight and first flight expected within 18 to 24 months.
- Under the MoU, Tata Elxsi will handle avionics, flight control systems, software integration, testing, verification and validation, and certification support, while Sarla Aviation will lead overall design, development and type certification.
- Tata Elxsi Limited was founded on May 5, 1989, is headquartered on ITPB Road, Whitefield, Bengaluru, and is listed on the NSE under the ticker TATAELXSI, with Manoj Raghavan as CEO and Managing Director.
- Sarla Aviation was founded in October 2023 by Adrian Schmidt and Rakesh Gaonkar (both ex-Lilium), is headquartered in Bengaluru, and has raised $10 million in funding, led by Accel, with backing from Binny Bansal, Nikhil Kamath, Sriharsha Majety and IndiGo Ventures.
- The DGCA issued AEAC 01 of 2024 on September 11, 2024, setting out type certification airworthiness criteria for VTOL Capable Aircraft, followed by ADAC 01 of 2024 for vertiports and FCL 01 of 2025 for VCA pilot ratings.
- India’s air taxi market is valued at $0.75 billion in 2026 and is projected to reach $5.93 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 29.5 percent.
- Beyond Shunya, the partnership is expected to feed into capabilities for logistics, air ambulance services and defence-related applications.
