Flyby pairs $4 million seed infusion with drone delivery pilot launch

Automated drone company Flyby has announced a pair of significant developments in its business expansion plans, with a launch of aerial food delivery activities coinciding with a $4 million infusion of seed financing.

Founded in 2020 by a group of engineers hailing from Yale, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Anduril, Flyby has been developing UAVs to provide end-to-end automated applications – including inspection and public safety uses – while readying launch of its own delivery activities. This week, Flyby said it would commence those by transporting orders for several specialized food retailers in select cities under a pilot program it expects expand over time.

At the same time, Flyby revealed it had secured $4 million in seed funding to scale its business pursuits from MaC Venture Capital, Weekend Fund, Anthemis, and Evening Fund, in addition to several other backers.

Read: Flytrex reports enormous surge in 2022 drone delivery activity

Though Los Angeles-based Flyby has been producing its F-11A UAVs using machine learning architecture to allow clients to run AI applications on the edge for fully automated operations, it has also been gearing itself up to enter the expanding drone delivery sector. This week it said it is starting those in cities like Mesa, AZ with an initial group of food partners.

Those include Nekter Juice Bar, the MAD Greens salad outlet, Tokyo Joe’s sushi restaurants, and crunchy shiitake mushroom chip maker Popadelics. According to Flyby’s release on the launch, other cities it plans to deliver orders in include Las Vegas.

“The City of Las Vegas’ Innovation District is excited about drone delivery and its potential to reduce traffic, heighten technological development in the region, and provide more sustainable delivery infrastructure”, says Michael Sherwood, chief innovation officer at the City of Las Vegas and its Innovation District. “In addition to providing economic and employment opportunities.”

In addition to its automated drones and new delivery order site, Flyby has developed a winch designed to lower fragile or easily spilled orders like smoothies to their destination without any product loss.

The company plans to use the seed funding to develop Flyby’s autonomous drone flight system beyond its current Level 3 status to Level 4, under which humans play no role at all in the entire drone delivery process apart from oversight and intervention in case of anomalies.

Read: Wing Delivery Network frees drones from point-to-point operation for faster, flexible service

Flyby CEO Jason Lu says its new-kid-on-the-block status in drone deliveries is being reflected in its recruitment of similarly creative and horizon-expanding retail clients, whose customers will receive orders inside five minutes for a small $3 charge.

“You don’t have to be a multibillion-dollar corporation or a global military superpower to reap the economic benefits of autonomous drones,” said Lu of the company’s tech work. “Our AI-powered autonomous systems allow any merchant to dramatically reduce the cost of delivery to their customers.”

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