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🦄 Unicorner Startup of the Week: Wingcopter
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✍️ Notes From The Editors
Hope your Monday is going well. Many people responded last week saying they're interested in Pipe. We're very excited too—especially since the team just raised $250 million following our cover. Another cool response we got was Aphid, which we think is worth looking at.
This week, we want to hear from you: what are you looking forward to this week? Personally, we're pretty hyped about Apple's WWDC event. As always, just reply to this email with your response.
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Building drones for humanitarian aid
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Wingcopter is a manufacturer of unmanned aerial drones built to address humanitarian needs. Wingcopter drones are able to deliver medical supplies, food, and spare parts to difficult-to-reach areas. They also provide mapping and inspection services. Drones have a range of about 75 miles, a top speed of around 150 mph, and can carry over a 13-pound payload.
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💰 Business Model
Currently, Wingcopter generates revenue through product sales on its website. Customers can request quotes on the product based on their usage. Wingcopter offers two drone models, the Wingcopter 178 and the Wingcopter 198, the latter of which is currently in early access.
📈 Traction and Fundraising
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Raised $22 million Series A from Futury Regio Growth Fund and Xplorer Capital
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Named 2020 Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum
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Partnered with UPS, All Nippon Airways, and Flying Labs Network
👫 Founder(s)
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Tom Plümmer, CEO: Previously Leadership in the Creative Industries @ Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences
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Ansgar Kadura, CSO: Previously EE and Management BS @ Technische Universität Darmstadt
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🔮 Our Analysis
Wingcopter focuses a great deal on developing innovative drone technology that can advance its mission of assisting with humanitarian needs. While most drone companies are catered toward government and defense contractors, Wingcopter prioritizes social impact causes. For example, as we see a rise in vaccinations, difficult-to-reach areas will need assistance in receiving doses. In fact, one of its success stories involves delivering vaccines across the remote Pacific island country of Vanuatu. Wingcopter can play a vital role in this delivery process because of the range, speed, and payload of its drones, as well as with other unique features, such as flying horizontally but taking off and landing vertically. Rather than attempting to deliver key vaccines by traversing rugged terrain and high altitudes, which took one man in Vanuatu eight hours per delivery, the same trip can be made in a quicker and more cost-effective manner with drones. In addition to addressing societal issues, this drone-as-a-service business model provides Wingcopter the opportunity to scale quickly because of its many applications. Because Wingcopter focuses on what many drone companies do not, it’s worth watching.
📚 Further Reading
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Made with 💜 by the Unicorner Team 🦄
Comments? Just reply to this email!
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🎁 Bonus Content!
- This week, we discovered a cool medical project. If you're interested in the field, check out Ray Kurzweil's digest on ProjectDR, an augmented reality software platform that enables diagnostic images to be projected onto the skin surface of a patient.
- 2021 has had a record number of venture-backed startup acquisitions. If you'd like to learn more about why this trend is occurring, be sure to read this recent Crunchbase article.
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