Airntell Aerospace Inc.
Airntell Aerospace Inc. is a startup that envisions to transition the world towards fully autonomous aerial technology. Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs), they strive to be an innovative leader in the field of aerial technology. Starting with Search and Rescue, they are developing a compact, portable UAS that operates remotely without human intervention to find and rescue missing people faster, cost-effectively, and more reliably.
Airntell’s main competitors are Threod Systems, Canadian UAVs, and DSLRPros. Despite the abundance of drone and UAV products offered on the market, many fall short of what Airntell offers. Airntell delivers only what the customer needs, the mission-critical intelligence, while their competitors sell UAVs as a product. This traditional model used by their competitors is human dependent & expensive (requires trained resources for operations, maintenance, and review of drone video footage). Because of these reasons, SAR teams call in high cost, technologically outdated military air support for nearly all aerial missions.
Strong Competitive Advantages of Airntell’s Systems:
Maintenance Free: Airntell services the tablets, launch bases and drones (Alleviating the customers fear of system breakdown).
Rescue Ability: If someone is drowning in the Ocean, their UAV’s drop live-saving supplies (Self-inflating raft, medical kit, etc.)
Intelligent: Rather than viewing UAV footage with error prevalent human eyes, Airntell can scan every inch of the ground using thermal imaging & innovative computer vision algorithms.
Simple: Clients can access Airntell’s service from anywhere at any time. Their tap to deploy service connects the customer to the intelligence through a secure app. Through a simple tap of the screen, Airntell’s autonomous UAVs immediately begin the search.
Autonomous: Instead of manually piloting the UAV, Airntell’s entire system is completely autonomous. This includes launch, recovery, flight, target identification & tracking. All the customer does is tap to deploy.
Rapidly Expandable: Airntell’s autonomous launch bases are essentially advanced shipping containers. The roof of the shipping container slides open, then the UAV launches. They will soon expand to other industries. To do so, a software update is all it takes.
Easily Transportable: Strap their weatherproof and tamper-proof launch base onto the back of a truck or train, or ship them on a freighter to the desired location. With Airntell’s ultra-long-range capabilities, all of Canada can be covered with 20 docking stations. Only 5 docking stations are needed to cover the Canadian SAR hotspots (>80% of cases).
Traction
Based on preliminary conversations about the technologically advanced platform, they have 3 organizations with signed LOI’s, 5 of whom have demonstrated strong email interest and 15 who have shown verbal interest. Organizations include the Canadian Coast Guard, Vancouver Police Department, Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, and many more.
The biggest hurdle that the team foresees within the year is closing government contracts. To support this process, Airntell has brought on an investor/advisor that has been responsible for closing massive deals in Canada and the US between private and government sectors. The advisor has provided support in connecting the company to high ranking political figures and Search and Rescue personnel which will hopefully help to overcome this hurdle. Airntell intends to push top-down change on the bureaucratic, slow to innovate Search and Rescue industry.
Team
Sahan Gunawardana, Co-Founder & Co-CEO – Sahan’s past experiences include being the former Head of a UAV development team for a foreign Ministry of Defence. He also led a marksmanship squadron of over 70 individuals to win 7 national & 2 global championships.
Mateus Saar, Co-Founder & Co-CEO – Mateus is a 5-time leader and MVP of Mississauga Panthers. He was a crew lead of 25+ landscapers, rescue diver, and certified mechanical designer on multiple internationally competitive engineering teams.
Kevin Delano, Board Member & Business Advisor – Serial entrepreneur, currently: founder & CEO of iMD Health, founder and CEO of Karma Casting, Co-Founder and COO of Sootsoap Supply Co. Previously, Kevin was the founder and CMO of CIM ($90mm) and LAUNCH! ($20mm) (sold both to Mosaic). He has garnered a multitude of awards including; 50 BEST Managed Companies, Best Workplaces, Fast 50, best healthcare technology.
Brandon Baird, Legal Advisor – Brandon started a company and sold the assets (software) to a large organization (Confidential). He is also a lawyer at McInnes Cooper focused on corporate and business law and was the recipient of the Advisory Board Business Administration Award.
Richard Szegidewicz, Search and Rescue (SAR) Advisor – Richard’s responsibilities include advising on SAR operations. Richard’s experiences include 30 + years of military operational experience, Canadian Air Force Pilot and Air Controller for the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC), and Intensive military flying career. Now, he coordinates, plans, tasks and directs airborne SAR platforms for aerial SAR missions in western Canada.
Funding
Working towards their grand vision for a future generation transitioned towards fully autonomous aerial technology, Airntell is seeking to raise $250,000 to fulfill this mission. Once secured, the funding will be used to manufacture the full product and get it ready for commercialization.
Airntell was incorporated on June 9, 2020, and is currently in the process of their first seed round.
With their expansion initiatives on the way, Airntell is planning for a 3-phase process:
Phase 1 (Completion April 2021) – Offshore Search and Rescue (SAR) service offered in Newfoundland and Labrador
Phase 2 (Completion April 2024) – Backcountry & Offshore SAR service providing entire coverage of Canada
Phase 3 (2025 Onward) – Expansion to the U.S. and other industries including Forest fire tracking, glacier tracking, agriculture health, border patrol, and maritime security.
Revenue Model
In contracts with provincial and federal search and rescue organizations, Airntell provides their manufactured Unmanned Aerial Systems for the customer’s use. This direct to consumer approach is Airntell’s main stream of revenue.
Details
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