- Series A funding will support product development, certification and market expansion
- Startup supplies avionics for China’s large aircraft and low-altitude aviation sectors
Chinese avionics startup GTAC (吉太航空科技) has raised nearly 100 million yuan ($14.7 million) in a Series A funding round led by existing investor Winreal Investment, with participation from Suzhou Capital Group, Green Pine Capital and the venture arm of logistics giant WZ Group.
This deal comes as it accelerates development of avionics systems for commercial aircraft and low-altitude aviation.
The proceeds will be used to develop products across the company’s two core business lines—large commercial aircraft and low-altitude aviation—while supporting airworthiness certification and market expansion.
Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Taicang, Suzhou, GTAC develops intelligent airborne avionics systems and aviation infrastructure.
Spanning three core areas
More than 70% of its workforce is engaged in research and development, with engineers recruited from companies including ZTE, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Honeywell and China’s state-owned aviation industry.
The company was founded by Hou Weigui (侯为贵), the founder of ZTE.
Investors said GTAC’s time-sensitive networking (TSN) avionics architecture could become a strategic technology for China’s aviation industry, potentially enabling domestic suppliers to compete more directly with established global avionics providers such as GE Aerospace and Thales Group.
GTAC’s product portfolio spans three core areas: emergency locator transmitters (ELTs), broadband data links for low-altitude aircraft and airborne TSN systems.
Its ELT products have received airworthiness approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China as well as certification from the Cospas-Sarsat international satellite rescue network.
This makes them China’s first domestically developed airborne emergency locator transmitters capable of supporting global search-and-rescue operations.
Supplying commercial jets and eVTOLs
The systems have already been adopted on Chinese commercial transport aircraft.
The company’s broadband data link products have entered volume production for eVTOL and drone manufacturers including Aerofugia (沃飞航空), ZeroG (零重力飞机工业) and Dreamfly (追梦空天).
Its proprietary airborne TSN platform, developed entirely in-house, is designed to serve as the networking backbone for future eVTOL aircraft and intelligent cockpits.
The company’s customer base now spans China’s three major civil aviation markets: large commercial aircraft, eVTOLs and heavy unmanned aerial vehicles.
The financing also aligns with Suzhou’s industrial development strategy. Aerospace is one of the city’s 10 priority industrial clusters under its “1030” initiative, which targets the development of 10 advanced manufacturing clusters and 30 key industrial value chains.
Suzhou aims to grow the output value of its aerospace industry to more than 60 billion yuan by 2026 under the “1030” strategy.
