Bengaluru, July 2025 — After building Zomato into a household name, Deepinder Goyal is now chasing a much bigger ambition developing India’s first homegrown jet engines through his new startup, LAT Aerospace.
The company, founded in 2023, is building a 25+ member engineering team at its Bengaluru research lab. Its goal: to design and develop short takeoff and landing (STOL) gas turbine engines that can power 12–24 seat regional aircraft, as well as next-gen drones and defense-grade UAVs.
Goyal has already invested $20 million of his own capital and raised a $50 million seed round, making it one of India’s most ambitious deep-tech moonshots.
The Problem It’s Solving
India operates over 450 airstrips, but fewer than 100 are active due to a lack of appropriate aircraft and engine infrastructure. LAT Aerospace aims to connect India’s underserved Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities with “buses in the sky” small aircraft capable of fast, affordable intercity travel.
Its in-house engine research spans combustion, materials science, turbomachinery, and thermal systems, with a focus on end-to-end control and independence from foreign tech.
Why It Matters
India currently imports 100% of its high-performance turbine engines. Goyal’s move could shift that balance and put India on the map for aerospace R&D, just as ISRO did for space.
With co-founder Surobhi Das (former COO, Zomato) leading the charge, LAT is being built like a true-first engineering company, not a paper unicorn.
Final Take:
If India wants real independence, it needs to control its engines literally. LAT Aerospace is Goyal’s boldest bet yet.
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