Matternet

Matternet offers drone-based deliveries for healthcare, ecommerce, and logistics sectors. Matternet develops both drone units (the latest version called M2) and operates a cloud platform handling delivery operations (including route planning and monitoring). Its drones are capable of carrying a payload of 4.4 lbs, within a 12-mile radius, cruising at a speed of 22 mph. It also offers “Matternet Station,” designed for safe and fully automated payload exchanges. These stations enable hospitals and their supply partners to transport items between their facilities. The company charges a fixed subscription from the retailers for its service.

Matternet received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approvals to conduct commercial on-demand drone-based deliveries in the US (Part 135 certification) in October 2019 (for Matternet-UPS joint operations) and in May 2023 (for Matternet-Ameriflight joint operations). The joint operation with UPS also obtained the FAA’s approval to conduct beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights in September 2023. Matternet also received an FAA waiver to test 20 drones per pilot (April 2023), FAA Type Certification (approves aircraft design and components about safety and reliability), and Production Certification (verifies that the company possesses the necessary quality management and manufacturing capabilities) for its upgraded M2 drones in (November 2023). In December 2023, Matternet gained approval from Germany's Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA), for beyond visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights in Berlin and, in September 2024, received the Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC) from Switzerland's Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) for similar operations.

The company’s drone units were in production as of November 2023, with plans to scale operations throughout the US, Europe, and the Middle East. As of August 2021, the company had reported completion of more than 13,000 commercial deliveries in the US and Switzerland.

Key customers and partnerships

The company’s US operations are conducted in partnership with UPS (under UPS’s Flight Forward Program), and with cargo airline Ameriflight. UPS and Matternet deliver medical supplies and lab samples for 1) WakeMed’s flagship hospital and campus in Raleigh, North Carolina) 2) CVS Pharmacy in the Villages, a retirement community in Florida (since April 2020), and 3) The Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health medical campus, North Carolina (since July 2020).

The company also serves hospitals and pharmacy chains in Europe including the EOC Hospital in Lugano and the University of Zurich Hospital, both in partnership with Swiss Post (January 2020), Labor Berlin in Germany (November 2020), and Stadspital Zurich, a municipal central hospital owned by the city of Zurich (December 2022) for various drone-based medical supplies and lab sample deliveries. Matternet also has partnerships with Japan Airlines (to expand to Japan; September 2020), and logistics company SkyGo (to expand to Aby Dhabi, UAE; September 2021).