Matternet, a company focused on providing drone delivery for medical applications, announced a strategic investment from McKesson Ventures. McKesson Ventures joins Matternet’s current investors, Boeing, Sony, and Mercedes-Benz, along with a growing list of strategic partners including UPS and Swiss Post.
Matternet has created a new transportation mode using drone networks to deliver lightweight, urgent items on demand at a fraction of the time, cost, and ecological footprint of any other transportation method. The round of funding will provide Matternet with access to opportunities in the U.S. health care logistics market and accelerate partnerships in international markets.
“We are proud to be creating the future of medical transportation and are thrilled about our investment from McKesson Ventures that will accelerate making our vision a reality,” said Matternet CEO Andreas Raptopoulos. “Through powerful partnerships, we are set to change the lives of millions of people. Our vision is that every hospital, clinic, lab, and pharmacy in the world will be connected through the most advanced, fastest, most efficient transportation method available today.”
Tom Rodgers, SVP and managing director of McKesson Ventures, said, “Matternet is leading the way in defining how drone technology can best be leveraged by health systems to improve the transport of items across their campuses and is well positioned to be a leading solution for last-mile delivery in general.”
In 2017, Matternet launched an extensive program with Swiss Post and became the first company in the world to be authorized for full operations of drone delivery over cities. Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with UPS to provide drone logistics services to U.S. health care systems, starting at WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina. At WakeMed, UPS and Matternet have successfully flown more than 1,500 flights and delivered nearly 8,000 lab samples. In September of 2019, the Matternet M2 drone logistics system enabled the first FAA-approved drone airline, UPS Flight Forward, to provide fast expansion to health care facilities across the U.S.
Read the full press release here.
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