A San Francisco Bay Area startup, MightyFly, has closed $5.1 million in seed funding to develop a hybrid-electric VTOL cargo drone for aerial logistics.
Contributors to the round include 500 Startups, At One Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Graph Ventures, and Halogen Ventures. MightyFly said the funding will be used to expand hiring, scale up its fleet, and build the infrastructure required to support a global network of hubs.
MightyFly said its autonomous MF-100 will have a cargo capacity of 100 lb. (45 kilograms), cruising speed of 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour), and range of 600 miles (965 km). The company is also planning a larger aircraft with a cargo capacity of 500 lb. (225 kg). Both models will be capable of making multiple deliveries during the same flight.
The company is led by co-founder and CEO Manal Habib, an MIT and Stanford graduate who previously led flight controls at Zipline, and co-founder and chief technology officer Scott Parker, who was a senior mechanical engineer at Zipline and led product design at Volansi.
“MightyFly marries economies of scale with autonomy to completely disrupt logistics, making quick, cost-efficient, and carbon-neutral cargo accessible to all businesses and all areas,” Habib stated in a press release. MightyFly claims to be the only female-led drone company designing and manufacturing its own drones to operate a logistics service.
MightyFly said its MF-100 has received a special airworthiness certificate from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and is performing test flights in California. The company aims to achieve FAA Part 135 certification, and airworthiness certifications in other markets including Australia and Asia.
Meanwhile, MightyFly is actively seeking business partnerships for proof-of-concept delivery service operations.
