Analysis
Poseidon Aerospace raised a $60 million Series A led by TQ Ventures ahead of the first test flight of Egret, its uncrewed cargo aircraft, according to TechCrunch. New investors Hanwha Asset Management, G Squared and JAWS joined the round, alongside existing backers Starship Ventures, Draper Associates and Drover Ventures. The company previously raised an $11 million seed round in late 2025.
Founded in 2024 by CEO David Zagaynov, a former Amazon software engineer, and CTO Parker Tenney, a former Lockheed Martin engineer, Poseidon is building Egret and a larger sibling, Heron, without the vertical-takeoff-and-landing systems or electric and hydrogen powertrains common among rival aviation startups. Egret is designed for conventional short-runway takeoffs and landings and has a 50-foot wingspan; a quarter-scale demonstrator called Seagull already flew last year. The company has moved into a former Navy hangar in Alameda, California, and plans a hiring push ahead of its first full-size flight, targeted before year-end.
“Egret is designed for conventional short-runway takeoffs and landings and has a 50-foot wingspan; a quarter-scale demonstrator called Seagull already flew last year.”
Poseidon's closest comparison in autonomous aviation is Xwing, which raised $40 million at a $400 million valuation after demonstrating the first fully autonomous gate-to-gate flight of a commercial cargo plane on $55 million total raised. On the defense side, Shield AI raised $1.5 billion at a $12.7 billion valuation in March, a sign of how much capital autonomous flight now commands -- though Poseidon's cargo focus keeps it out of the defense-drone race directly.