Moya Aero

Moya Aero

Moya Aero is a Brazilian developer of uncrewed cargo eVTOL aircraft, based in São José dos Campos — the São Paulo state city that also houses Embraer and Brazil’s aeronautics institute. It was founded in 2020 as a spin-off from ACS Aviation by Alexandre Zaramela, who is chief executive, and Renata Marins Paolillo, chief operating officer. The target market is middle-mile logistics: loads too heavy for a small delivery quadcopter and too small to justify a helicopter, across Brazilian geography where road links are slow or absent.

Aircraft

The line is built around two airframes sharing a common architecture, including battery modules and flight software, which the company says lowers maintenance and training cost across the family.

Moya 256 — the smaller aircraft, quoted at 30 kg payload, 160 km range and 130 km/h cruise. A prototype registered PP-AZM first flew in November 2023 and was still in flight test near São José dos Campos in mid-2026, being prepared for its first full transition from hover to wing-borne cruise.

Moya 760 — the larger cargo aircraft, quoted at 190 kg payload, 190 km range and 160 km/h cruise. A full-scale prototype was under construction in July 2026, with the company expecting a first flight by year-end.

A hybrid-electric variant announced in July 2024 is quoted at 200 kg payload over 300 km. Those figures are design targets, not demonstrated performance.

Funding and Position

Moya is private and has not disclosed a total raised. It went through the Techstars Los Angeles accelerator in 2023, with Techstars investing at seed stage, and lists Seed4Science and Hards among its backers. In March 2025 it was awarded a $2 million grant by FINEP, Brazil’s federal innovation agency, to develop a portable AI-assisted ground control system for beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations, in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of Pernambuco.

The company has said it aims to certify with ANAC, the Brazilian regulator, during 2026 and enter service in 2027.

Why It Matters

Moya is attempting something few cargo eVTOL developers have managed anywhere: certifying a heavy-lift uncrewed aircraft with a national regulator and then operating it commercially. Being in São José dos Campos gives it access to Brazilian aerospace engineering talent and an ANAC that has moved faster on uncrewed cargo than the FAA has.

The weakness is capital. Moya’s disclosed funding is a Techstars-scale seed plus a $2 million government grant, which is very thin against a two-aircraft certification programme. The larger 760 — the aircraft that carries the commercial case — had not flown as of mid-2026, and the 256 had not yet demonstrated full transition. A 2027 service entry rests on both of those happening and on certification work that has no public precedent in Brazil at this weight class.