This Delhi Startup Is Betting On Hydrogen Jet Engines, But Is It Too Early?

Have you heard of Project Kaveri? This programme from the 1990s was India’s first attempt to develop an indigenous jet engine. Seen as a cornerstone of the country’s aerospace ambitions, it was meant to create the engine to power the Indian Air Force’s Tejas light combat aircraft. 

But Project Kaveri is still not complete. It failed to reach its end goal due to a lack of local technological expertise and the complex nature of manufacturing jet engines. Nearly three decades on, the ambition remains a pipe dream. But a two-year-old Delhi NCR startup is trying to create what Kaveri could not.

Founded in 2023 by Prithwish Kundu, Green Aero is on a quest to build India’s first hydrogen-powered jet engines, propulsion systems and gas turbines for civil and defence applications.

The startup claims to have already developed small engines for drones that are ready to be commercialised in the next few months. In May 2025, Green Aero also successfully demonstrated its first hydrogen-powered jet engine named The Blue Dragon.

These milestones notwithstanding, this is just the start of the journey for Green Aero, which is yet to launch commercial operations and earn revenue.

While it has raised $1.6 Mn from the likes of pi Ventures and Antler, both credible names in early stage deeptech investing, the aerospace game isn’t easy. It takes years and millions of dollars, if not billions, to design and operationalise a jet engine.

On top of this, Green Aero’s niche lies in a potential hydrogen-powered engine that may require even more technical knowhow than regular fuel-powered engines and even heavier capital investment. However, the potential of putting India on the map when it comes to the global elite of jet engine production is one of Kundu’s lifelong dreams. 

As such, the story of Green Aero starts with Kundu’s childhood.

The Inception Of Green Aero

Kundu claims he’s been an aviation enthusiast since he was a kid and gradually steered his career in that direction. After completing masters in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University in 2012, he began work as a propulsion engineer and a researcher at the Argonne National Laboratory in the US, where he worked on projects for NASA and the US Army.

This experience gave Kundu the opportunity to dive deeper into the aerospace industry and see how things work outside India. It also taught him a little about what it takes to commercialise technology. 

Even though he had the exposure in the US, Kundu always wanted to build something from scratch.

“When you work for a large company, you do a specific role, so you’re restricted to that. But my passion was to build systems from scratch,” he claimed.

Returning to India in 2021, he decided to gain some more experience instead of jumping into a startup. To understand the intricacies of the Indian startup and manufacturing ecosystem, Kundu worked for EV manufacturer Euler Motors for two years.

At Euler, Kundu worked as the associate vice president for thermal and battery R&D vertical, where he was responsible for development of batteries for cargo vehicles. For a brief period Kundu also worked for AgniKul, which develops rockets for satellites. But two years after returning to India, Kundu was confident enough to launch Green Aero. 

Is Hydrogen Fuel The Answer?

Currently, the aviation industry is estimated to contribute around 3% to global emissions of carbon dioxide or CO2. This is relatively low, but the industry is a major contributor to climate change due to the emission of other greenhouse gases and the effects of emissions at high altitudes. 

Plus, as trade becomes more global in nature and as tourism rebounded after Covid, emissions have grown. International Energy Agency estimates that aviation emissions in 2023 reached almost 950 mt (metric tonne) CO2, 90% higher than pre-Covid-19 levels. 

Besides large manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, and Safran, startups are betting on liquid hydrogen as the most effective means of powering large passenger-carrying airliners. These aerospace giants are looking at testing in 2025, so there is some merit to Green Aero’s focus on this segment.

Further, liquid hydrogen fuel is also said to be a more efficient fuel compared to traditional aviation fuel, which means airlines can reduce fuel weight and have more room to carry goods and passengers, potentially reducing the number of flights in the air.

While electric jet engines are often touted as another green alternative, recharging electric batteries involves a longer turnaround time, whereas hydrogen-based engines would be very similar to that of fossil fuel engines. All it needs is a different piping system. 

Kundu claims that many drone manufacturers are in talks with Green Aero to use its engines. He, however, refused to divulge their names as deliberations are still underway. 

For now, the startup has set its eyes on serving three key markets – civil aviation, shipping and defence. Breaking into the civil aviation sector may take a long while, but unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones are an alternative market for Green Aero and other startups in this space.

While the defence sector has given it a leg-up at the outset, Green Aero does not wish to position itself entirely as a defence company. Kundu is eyeing entering the capex-intensive civil aviation space, which is dominated by deep-pocketed global giants like GE Aerospace, Honeywell, Rolls-Royce and Safran.

For now, the company is making traditional fossil-fuel engines for heavy load UAVs, but Green Aero is betting that hydrogen-based jet engines will find commercial adoption in the next decade. 

Is India Hydrogen-Ready?

Despite all of Kundu’s bullishness, one does have to wonder whether hydrogen fuel is the right approach for aerospace engines right now, given how nascent hydrogen fuel production is. 

The founder acknowledged this gap, but also claimed that Green Aero is perfectly positioned to capitalise on the hydrogen-powered jet engine market in the future. Getting the technology ready for deployment at-scale is essential and that’s what the startup is doing now.  

Kundu explained that innovation in aerospace can be divided into three parts: production, storage and consumption. So when the problem of production and storage of hydrogen fuel is solved over the next five years or decade, the demand for hydrogen jet engines or consumption of the fuel will also increase. 

“Our idea is that we want to invest in the consumption end early on, which is today, four or five years from now, when the production and storage, supply, storage problem has already been sorted out. There will be a surge in demand. We should be ready with the product to counter that surge in demand,” said Kundu. 

Then, there is the company’s focus on building a “more efficient” and innovative jet engine that can disrupt the current scheme of things. “Our aim is not just to replicate whatever engines are available in the market. Our aim is to do cutting edge R&D so that we build engines of the future,” added Kundu.

The company is also banking on the ongoing global transition to clean fuel to provide a thrust to the company, though it’s not clear when this transition will start.

Where’s The Capital For Green Aero?

And the road ahead will not be as easy as Kundu makes it seem. For starters, just like any other deeptech startup, capital is a big challenge for Green Aero. Being a highly capex-intensive industry, Green Aero needs funds and that too patient capital. Typical VCs might not wait the ten years it might take for hydrogen jet engine adoption.

“Our gestation periods are much higher compared to a fintech or a SaaS company. So we have developed small engines for a set market which are ready to be commercialised in the next few months and generate revenue. This would further build confidence in our investors to attract investments,” Kundu said. 

While this go-to-market strategy might help the company tide over some capital pains in the next few years, there are other issues such as limited domestic capabilities for high-tech manufacturing, limited expertise or talent pool, an incredibly complex and evolving tech stack and dearth of testing infrastructure. 

Plus, India does not have a cohesive supply chain which automatically favours more entrenched giants that have the right connections. And these are some of the largest companies in the world, so it’s not a level playing field for Green Aero or any other startup that looks to jump into the segment. 

The fact that Green Aero is currently developing traditional fossil fuel engines is another concern. It does call into question some of the claims around liquid hydrogen fuel being the future. It wouldn’t be the first startup to fail, waiting for the right market timing.  

Despite these strong headwinds and challenges, Green Aero says it is ready to claim a small but meaningful piece of the global aircraft engines market by 2032, when the market opportunity will be north of $300 Bn. 

Hydrogen or not, it’s a tall ask for any company that’s just two years old, especially when no startup has managed to disrupt the incumbents in a major way. 

[Edited by Nikhil Subramaniam]