Venture capital helped Eric Peck, a former airforce pilot, turn an idea for a medical delivery service using drones into an award-winning company operating in five countries.

“The capital we’ve raised allowed us to prepare for scale and strengthen the fundamentals,” says Peck, chief executive of Melbourne-based Swoop Aero, which can deliver medicines and pathology tests to a space the size of a dinner plate anywhere within a 150-kilometre range.