Aviant is a Norwegian drone start-up based in Trondheim. It has just launched a drone home delivery service Kyte which is expected to cover a radius of over 30 kms carrying such items as groceries, ready meals and light medicines - ordered via the Kyte app.
Already proving its worth the company, founded by three MIT students Lars Erik Fagernæs, Herman Øie Kolden and Bernhard Paus Græsdal, has provided many services including transporting blood samples, COVID-samples, water samples, milk samples, and equipment for windmill farms - in conditions as low as -26 °C.
It has landed an additional €1 million of public funding from Innovation Norway to autonomously deliver vital prescription medicines directly from pharmacies to people in remote and suburban areas, where mobility can be challenging due to long distances and factors like bad roads or severe weather.
“Our technology proved critical for rural healthcare services during the pandemic, where winter road closures meant our drones were the only link between Covid-19 test sites and laboratories in Central Norway. Now, with the launch of Kyte and our funding from Innovation Norway, Luminar Ventures and Bring Ventures, we are able to provide people in remote and hard-to-reach areas with the groceries and medical supplies they need, directly to their doorstep, with no traffic restrictions and minimal climate emissions,” says Lars Erik Fagernæs, co-founder and CEO at Aviant.
Aviant raised a seed round of €2.3 million in September 2022, in a round led by Bring Ventures, the venture arm of the Norwegian postal service. The company is planning to open a second base in Norway during 2023, which will enable it to serve 20,000 - 30,000 remote holiday homes with door-to-door deliveries. Long term Aviant is looking to bring drone home delivery to most of the Norwegian population, as well as EU markets.
“Door-to-door drone delivery has been a hot topic for years already, but most commercial attempts have been limited to small, open areas such as a single park, or technology that limits the radius to 2-3 kms. Where plenty of companies have received initial funding, getting a commercial last-mile delivery service up and running has proven extremely difficult. That changes with Kyte. We have a large delivery radius, the permits to operate, and no requirements for pilots or spotters along the route. We are actually delivering food, groceries and medicine by drone to people’s doorsteps in Norway right now," says Fagernæs.
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