Founded in 2011, Matternet is building a drone delivery-as-a-service platform that allows companies to operate a fleet of drones designed to deliver packages across short distances autonomously, without human intervention. Let’s dive into Matternet’s history and milestones to review what might make this company stand out from other autonomous drone network companies.

Matternet’s History & Milestones

Founded by Andreas Raptopoulos and Paola Santana, the company was rooted in Raptopoulos’ dream of building a flying car. After attending the Singularity University summer program at NASA Ames Laboratory in 2011, Raptopoulos founded Matternet to bring quadcopters – on a smaller scale – to places where they were needed most.[1] He realized that there are one billion people in the world who lack reliable road access to their homes and critical supplies like medicine, so he wanted to solve this problem by creating a more efficient and accessible way to deliver goods, starting with on-demand medical devices.

Why?

During the Google Solve for X forum in 2012, Raptopoulos said “We take it for granted today that you can put data out on the Internet and it will sort of magically move to anywhere else on the planet. What if there were a Matternet that could do the same thing with physical objects?”

How?

This question led him to take a trip to Haiti later that year to study the problem of inadequate logistics infrastructure in a new economy. Here is where Raptopoulos and his team of five used an off-the-shelf drone to deliver supplies to the Petionville camp, a camp set up after the devastating effects of the earthquake in 2010. Two years later, Matternet developed its first Minimum Viable Product drone.

Matternet’s Products

Matternet has designed a variety of products that come together to form its on-demand delivery platform. Its drone, a station for takeoff and landings, and a cloud platform and dashboard make up the end-to-end solution to provide its platform as a service to healthcare, e-commerce, and logistics organizations around the world.

Drones

Matternet has developed a total of three drones since inception, M0 – its MVP, M1, and M2. The M0 drone is capable of executing autonomous delivery, commanded and controlled through Matternet’s cloud system. It was deployed for testing in Papua New Guinea and Bhutan in 2014.

The M1 drone was later developed in 2015 as the first purpose-built civilian delivery drone system, designed for ease of use. The M1 is in the permanent collections of the London Design Museum and the Swiss Museum of Transport.

The newest and current Matternet drone, M2, was designed for automated exchange of batteries and payloads, and is the first Matternet drone that can be integrated with Matternet’s landing stations. The Matternet M2 can transport items up to 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) over distances up to 20 kilometers (12.4 miles). It can fly as fast as 45 miles per hour and was approved to reach an altitude of 400 feet or lower.

Station and Landing Pad

Matternet is also developing a system of physical drone stations and landing pads for the M2. These stations are expected to provide a safe take-off and landing center for the drone, a charging station for the M2, and a package locker for delivered packages. The drone stations are fixed into the ground or onto a rooftop and sit around 3 meters tall.

It is also developing a portable landing pad designed for rapid mobile deployment. The landing pad is not set in one location and can be moved, allowing for quicker adoption and more accessible deliveries.

Cloud Platform

Its software platform is designed to support Matternet flight networks and provide operators with complete control of the drone’s route. The operators are also able to generate routes, receive customer requests, and generate new commands to manage their assets – the drones, the stations, and the landing pads.

Applications

Matternet has four applications for its drones, outlined below:

• Healthcare: designed to facilitate fast, reliable, and predictable transportation of diagnostic samples and medical items between different healthcare facilities
• E-Commerce: aims to fulfill consumer demands quickly and efficiently across numerous customer distribution facilities
• Humanitarian: designed to get necessary supplies between remote locations, regardless of transportation infrastructure
• Food Delivery: built to quickly and safely deliver food directly to a customer’s doorstep

Matternet Milestones

Matternet has achieved multiple milestones within the last few years. Some of their milestones are but not limited to the following:

• Became the first company in the world authorized for commercial BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) operations of drone logistics networks over cities in Switzerland in November 2023[2]
• Drones helped to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine to the largest retirement communities in the U.S., contact-free, during the pandemic[3]
• Matternet’s drones have logged 50,000+ autonomous flights and its M2 drone is the first non-military unmanned aerial system to achieve Type Certification and Production Certification by the U.S. FAA
• Long standing partnership with the UPS, which received FAA approval in 2023 to conduct package deliveries with the M2 beyond visual line of sight, a critical milestone for full autonomous delivery
• Utilized by several Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) for humanitarian projects including the World Health Organization (WHO), Doctors without Borders, UNICEF, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Matternet Funding

Matternet has raised over $74 million to date. Some of Matternet’s larger investors include Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Andreessen Horowitz, Swiss Post Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, McKesson Ventures, and MicroVentures. Through these funding rounds, Matternet continues to receive certifications, develop its drone technology, and scale operations.

Final Thoughts

Matternet is continuing to advance the capabilities of its drone networks through its mission by focusing on expanding its reach and efficiency since its inception in 2011. These developments are not only helping shape the future of logistics but also contributing to the design of finding new ways to reach new places with autonomous vehicles. It started with medicine delivery, it is now expanding to food delivery, who knows where the industry could go next?

Want to learn more about other MicroVentures portfolio companies disrupting their industries? Check out the following blogs to learn more:

• MicroVentures Portfolio Company: Cerebras’ History and Milestones
• MicroVentures Portfolio Company: Ripple Labs’ History and Milestones
• MicroVentures Portfolio Company: ICON’s History and Milestones

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[1] https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/23/matternet-to-test-the-first-real-drone-delivery-system-in-switzerland/

[2] https://www.endeavor.org.gr/companies/matternet

[3] https://www.endeavor.org.gr/companies/matternet

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