Frankfurt The pizza, which is delivered to the front door by drone, is probably a rather wild idea. Transporting goods through the air in a concerted manner from storage facilities to manufacturing and consumption points – this in turn could prove to be a lucrative market. The venture capital firm Levitate Capital puts the volume of the cargo drone business at 33 billion US dollars in 2030.
However, there are some challenges. The idea that in the future hundreds of drones will hover over densely built-up metropolises frightens many – including the aviation authorities. The start-up Wingcopter from Weiterstadt near Darmstadt has therefore looked for niches that promise success.
Wingcopter was founded in 2017 by today’s CEO Tom Plümmer with fellow students from Darmstadt. They developed an electric high-flyer that can carry six kilograms of freight and cover a distance of up to 110 kilometers in one hour. The drone is considered efficient, also thanks to the additional wings with a span of around two meters.
The company initially raised $22 million from investors in 2021, followed by $42 million in the summer of 2022. The retailer Rewe also got involved in the latest round of financing and, according to its own statements, sees the start-up as an important partner for a future-oriented topic. Itochu is also involved, a group that operates, among other things, one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan with over 24,000 shops. Another round of financing is said to be in the works.
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Why is the business idea important?
Wingcopter primarily wants to use the aircraft to distribute medical products in regions that are difficult to access. In the Southeast African landlocked country of Malawi, the company has been supplying remote regions with medicines since 2018, in cooperation with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ). In the US, Air Methods is planning a delivery network between hospitals with Wingcopter.
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Wingcopter has set itself the goal of improving people’s lives in the long term, Plummer described the vision a few months ago in an interview with the Handelsblatt. Drones that travel for medicine could also transport other things such as food. However, the young company does not have a delivery to end customers in mind.
How far is Wingcopter?
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the Wingcopter concept and defined the so-called “Airworthiness Criteria” in May 2022. This establishes what the aircraft must meet in order to be approved for American airspace. The authorities in Europe and Japan are also very cooperative, according to Darmstadt.
When it comes to infrastructure, there is a pragmatic solution. The company is constructing a concrete take-off and landing platform and setting up a modified shipping container for the staff with everything they need to monitor the drone flights. This shouldn’t take longer than a day.
What are the challenges?
Numerous companies have already tried their hand at delivery drones, including large corporations such as UPS or Amazon. So far, the idea has not really caught on. Delivery Drones have limited capacity. Wingcopter has therefore equipped the drone with a system that can drop several packages from the air at different locations.
The boss and co-founder of the delivery drone start-up is currently worried about a major order from Africa.
(Photo: Peter Jülich/Wingcopter)
But there are competitors. In the US, for example, Zipline claims to have completed more than 250,000 commercial shipments.
Although Wingcopter has already received a few orders, the largest so far is no longer considered safe. In May 2022, the Darmstadt-based company announced that it had signed a billion-euro contract with South African Continental Drones, a subsidiary of Atlantic Trust Holding based in Ghana and Dubai. With 12,000 drones, a transport network was to be set up in numerous countries south of the Sahara over a period of five years.
But after several Wingcopter investors allegedly urged the mega contract to be scrutinized again, the corresponding message has disappeared from the start-up’s website. The project has probably not yet been finally written off. Wingcopter does not comment on the subject when asked.
What’s next?
In the production in Weiterstadt, there is basically enough space and machinery for the construction of up to several thousand drones per year. But in order to reach this capacity, the company needs new employees. The goal is a three-shift operation. In addition, robots should support production and increase efficiency. A first device from Kuka is already in use.
At the same time, the company is examining expansion, but that also depends on the extent to which the Africa order will come or whether alternative customers can be found. The management of the start-up had recently looked around for building land both in Hesse and abroad.
Every week, the Handelsblatt presents young companies that managers, entrepreneurs and those interested in business should now take a look at. The focus is on the innovation potential, which investors also pay particular attention to. The business models and ideas could also provide new impetus for products and solutions in other sectors.
More: Wingcopter boss is looking for building land for factories