A startup betting that cargo planes need no pilots and no fancy powertrains now has the cash to prove it. Poseidon Aerospace’s $60M Series A lands as its first uncrewed aircraft, Egret, heads toward a maiden flight before the year ends.
TQ Ventures led the round. Hanwha Asset Management, G Squared and JAWS came in as new investors, while Starship Ventures, Draper Associates and Drover Ventures added to their stakes. The startup, founded by former Amazon logistics manager David Zagaynov and ex-Lockheed Martin engineer Parker Tenney, raised an $11M seed last year.
Poseidon’s contrarian bet is simplicity. No vertical takeoff, no electric powertrains, no hydrogen. Egret and its seaplane variant Heron are fixed-wing aircraft with conventional combustion engines, stripped of cockpits and life-support systems to cut weight and cost. Removing pilots also removes duty-hour limits, letting a single plane fly more legs in a day.
The startup plans to operate its own regional air cargo business rather than sell aircraft, chasing freight from UPS and FedEx while courting defense customers that need supply lines into places with poor infrastructure.
A quarter-scale demonstrator called Seagull flew last year. The full-size aircraft, with a 50-foot wingspan, is now being built inside a former Navy hangar in Alameda, California, where the team is hiring ahead of the flight campaign.
