Jitendra Kumar Purnmal Saini is Co-Founder and CTO of AquaAirX Autonomous Systems, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech startup building India's first AI-enabled amphibious drones that seamlessly transition between aerial and underwater operations.

An aeronautical engineer and lifelong aeromodeller educated at Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Jitendra gained early defense exposure through a DRDO internship where he identified critical gaps in India's maritime surveillance capabilities.

Jitendra previously founded Aerogo India, a drone training venture where he trained over 5,000 students, before channeling his expertise into solving multi-domain maritime autonomy challenges at AquaAirX.

Under his technical leadership, AquaAirX has achieved Technology Readiness Level 6 for its flagship AVATAAR amphibious platform, been selected for Israel Aerospace Industries' NeuSPHERE program, and cleared multiple milestones under India's iDEX defence innovation initiative.

AquaAirX raised Rs 12.5 crore in seed funding led by Rainmatter (Zerodha's investment arm), with participation from Prime Venture Partners, Wyser, and India Accelerator, and aims to enter defence and commercial markets by 2027.