Drones the ‘future of medical delivery’, says Swoop Aero

Melbourne-based medical drone logistics company Swoop Aero plans to deliver critical supplies to 100 million people by 2025.

Swoop Aero became the first company in the world to remotely pilot commercially used drones from another country, when delivering PPE and critical supplies in Malawi during the COVID-19 pandemic. Picture: supplied.

Melbourne-based medical drone logistics company Swoop Aero has defied the COVID-19 downturn to close a Series A funding round, landing an eight-figure sum as it moves towards its stated goal of providing 100 million people with better access to health care by 2025.

Swoop Aero boss Eric Peck, a former air force fighter pilot, told The Australian his start-up recently became the first company in the world to remotely pilot commercially used drones from another country, when delivering PPE and critical supplies in Malawi during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company posted revenue growth of 50 per cent quarter-on-quarter for the past 18 months, supplying African countries with two-way drone networks capable of delivering essential medical supplies.

It’s now raised it’s first major round of capital, from Right Click Capital and Tempus Partners, to kickstart its drone networks in Australia and New Zealand.

“As COVID-19 has shown, problems with access to much-needed healthcare supplies are consistent across the globe, even in developed countries like Australia, where pathology tests take days to arrive, if they arrive at all,” Mr Peck said.

“We can’t imagine a future where drone transport isn’t a universally critical component of the health supply chain. And ultimately we think we’re having new opportunities because of COVID-19, we are going to come out the other side and continue to grow and have an impact just as much as we were.”

The executive said that in recent weeks the Australian government had demonstrated its intention to put innovation back on the agenda, and that one of the biggest lessons from the pandemic was the need to remove red tape.

“It has limited our capacity as a nation to respond as quickly as we could have, with a self-distancing solution to deliver lifesaving medicines, and early testing kits,” he said.

“We’ve formally provided a recommendation to the government inquiry into COVID-19 that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) prioritise domestic healthcare-related aviation applications during and after the pandemic in order to enable a more effective national response and to build more resilience across the health supply chain. It fills us with great confidence that a change is on the horizon.”

According to Mr Peck, in Australia 5 per cent of pathology test samples were lost due to inefficient delivery methods, and often took up to a few weeks to return results. Using aeromedical drone logistics to transport medicines, pathology tests and samples, reduces chances of lost tests and improves turnaround times, he said.

The start-up would not disclose the exact amount of funding or its most recent valuation.

Tempus Partners managing partner Alister Coleman said Swoop was fast becoming an extraordinary Australian company.

“It’s been a game changer for developing economies, and for aid organisations like the Gates Foundation who are trying to support remote communities with their battles against some pretty nasty healthcare crises,” he said.

“We believe they have the ability to both do good and make a big impact.”