Participated · Seed · Nov 2022

Aviant operates Kyte, an autonomous home-delivery service that drops groceries, ready meals and non-prescription medicines directly to doorsteps via long-range drones. Its aircraft can fly up to 120 km in a straight line, giving Kyte a much larger delivery radius (return flights up to ~30 km) than many competitors. Customers order through the Kyte app; drones are loaded at a home base, autonomously complete the delivery and return. Aviant is certified under EU regulations to operate autonomous flights and has completed over 2,500 autonomous flights covering more than 35,000 km; Kyte deliveries alone have covered over 4,000 km with an average delivery time of 24 minutes. The company has completed 12 commercial contracts in Norway and Sweden and was used during the pandemic to transport Covid-19 tests and blood samples between hospitals. Aviant has secured public funding and VC backing (including a €1M grant from Innovation Norway and a €2.3M seed) and plans to open a second Norwegian base to serve 20,000–30,000 remote holiday homes, with longer-term ambitions to expand across Norway and into EU markets. Aviant develops hybrid vertical-takeoff, forward-flight drones designed for autonomous delivery of biological samples and other lightweight cargo. The company began in 2020 at MIT and was founded by Herman Øie Kolden and Lars Erik Matsson Fagernæs. Its fleet has completed more than 2,000 flights covering over 25,000 km and the aircraft claim an extended range of up to 120 km. Aviant says its drones have been tested in winds up to 18 m/s and temperatures as low as -26°C and that customers benchmarked them against better-funded competitors. The company is positioning its technology as a faster, lower-emission logistics alternative and is focused on scaling operations. Aviant’s use cases have included transporting biological and blood samples, milk and water samples, and spare parts to wind turbines.