Boston-based startup Regent is on a mission to cut the cost of regional transportation between coastal cities with its electric seaglider. This week, the company announced that it raised $9 million in seed funding from Caffeinated Capital.
Regent stands for “regional electric ground effect naval transport.” The company’s aircraft couples the speed of a commercial airplane with the docking capabilities of a boat while operating just a few meters above the water’s surface.
“By staying within a wingspan of the water, we unlock the ability to fly twice as far as a [standard] electric aircraft,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.
Regent’s seaglider will service routes of up to 180 miles with its existing battery technology and the company intends to up that distance to 500 miles with next-gen batteries in development.
Co-founders Billy Thalheimer and Michael Klinker told CNBC that they plan to establish passenger routes between Boston and New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as inter-island travel in Hawaii.
“This concept is a perfect union of high performance yacht design and revolutionary electrified aircraft,” William Bryan Baker, design lead at Regent, said in a post on LinkedIn. “We are developing a new form of coastal transportation which is high speed, efficient and all electric.”
Regent plans to expand the size of its team as it continues to test and modify its aircraft technology. The company is now hiring for seven full-time positions.
Recently, there has been a flurry of investments for green-flight startups across the country. Universal Hydrogen, an LA-based company creating hydrogen fuel modules for regional aircraft, announced the close of its Series A on Thursday.
Pending authorization from maritime authorities, Regent plans to fly its first passengers by 2025.
Additional investors Founders Fund, Mark Cuban, Thiel Capital and Y Combinator participated in the round, among others.
