Meet Wingcopter – The startup that develops drones for UPS
We don’t follow up on offers for military purposes. Wingcopter should serve mankind
Tom Plümmer CEO and Co-Founder Wingcopter
The FounderIn this interview we are talking to Tom Plümmer (https://www.linkedin.com/in/wingcopter/), CEO and Co-Founder of Rhine-Main-based drone startup Wingcopter (https://wingcopter.com/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/wingcopter), which won the title Startup of the Month by our media partner Frankfurt Forward (https://www.frankfurtforward.com/startups-of-the-month).
For a long time, we bootstrapped our startup by selling the drones we already produced.
Tom Plümmer CEO and Co-Founder Wingcopter
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I studied film, and it turned into aerial filming. I could never find a drone to fit my needs.
Tom Plümmer CEO and Co-Founder Wingcopter
The Startup
Wingcopter is a vertical take-off drone. It is not a multicopter, with four to eight rotors, but it combines vertical takeoff capabilities with wings for long ranges. The drone the ability to navigate and can (depending on the regulation) be piloted beyond the visual line of sight in some countries.
I am not an engineer. That’s why it is a little bit crazy that I ended up in this position, running now a company with really really capable engineers.
Tom Plümmer CEO and Co-Founder Wingcopter
Wingcopter holds a patent for its tilt-rotor drones. The "tilt-rotor" is the USP of Wingcopter and enables the impressive capabilities of the small aircraft to deliver (mostly medical) goods far, fast, and safe.
In the beginning, they received a lot of requests for the military use of their drones, which they always denied. On the other hand, they are working with DHL and UPS, as well as delivery of medical products (especially vaccines) with UNICEF. They work to deliver time-sensitive medical supplies already in projects in Vanuatu (Pacific Island), Scotland, Ireland, Malawi, Ethiopia, or Tanzania.
Cooperation in Germany with MerckIn Germany they are also working with Merck, transferring laboratory samples. In the past, they have been a startup in one of the batches of the Merck Accelerator Program. You can learn more about the program here. Note the interviews are sponsored content on our channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zetBlvE_1Fw&list=PLUbiCAQc22WsPgZfsShQffGE8EzAsRuxW
We are currently looking into running commercial drone flights beyond line of sight
Tom Plümmer CEO and Co-Founder Wingcopter
Venture Capital FundingAfter a long time of bootstrapping, they raised venture capital end of 2019 and again in Q1 in 2020. You can learn more here: https://www.suasnews.com/2020/03/wingcopter-secures-further-investment-from-corecam/ They are currently in talks for more funding.
The Video Interview is set to go live on August 13th, 2020, 19.00 CET Frankfurt / 1 pm Easternhttps://youtu.be/3xurldMpDbY
We build industrial drones, not toys for everybody.
Tom Plümmer CEO and Co-Founder Wingcopter
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The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:
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Meet Wingcopter – The startup that develops drones for UPS