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AirSpace Link

AirSpace Link Landed $4M in Funding for its Drone Flightpath Clearance System

AirSpace Link, a Detroit-based startup that automates flight path and FAA clearance for commercial drones, raised $4 million in seed funding in the second half of last year, TechCrunch uncovered yesterday.

According to Crunchbase, AirSpace Link raised a $1 million pre-seed round in September led by 2048 Ventures, and a $3 million seed in December led by Indicator Ventures.

The easiest way to think about AirSpace Link is as a set of turn-by-turn directions for commercial drones. As delivery of packages and hamburgers becomes more of a reality , the sky above us will get more crowded. With AirSpace Link’s cloud-based software, a drone operator inputs their starting and delivery points. AirSpace Link then charts an aerial course and gets Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval in seconds so the drone doesn’t interfere with air traffic.

In a phone interview last month, AirSpace Link President and CEO Michael Healander told me that his was one of just five companies in the world that can authorize commercial drone flights near airports.

In addition to air traffic and obstacles, AirSpace Link goes one step further by working with local governments to consider ground-based risks as it charts the skies for a clear path. Working with local governments, AirSpace Link also navigates drones around things like schools, prisons and emergency situations you wouldn’t want a drone flying over.

Google, Amazon and Uber all have drone delivery ambitions. Google started trialing package delivery in Virginia last year and Uber Eats says it will conduct drone deliveries in San Diego this summer. As these services come to market, new sets of issues (like flight path creation) will arise. There will be a halo effect that spur the launch of more supporting startups like AirSpace Link.

Video: Airspace Link Gets Immediate FAA Approvals for Commercial Drone Flights

The idea of drones zipping through the sky to deliver you burritos in just minutes sounds so cyberpunky and cool. Because it is! That’s why companies like Google and Uber Eats are investing so heavily in the technology.

But as with so many things, to get something that’s cool, there is a lot of very unglamorous grunt work going on behind the scenes. For commercial drone deliveries, Airspace Link is looking to make one of those bits of drudgery a little bit easier: plotting out and receiving official approval for flight paths.

Airspace Link works with both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and local governments to help commercial drone operators understand both air and ground risks and establish approved flight paths. Michael Healander, CEO and President of Airspace Link, told me by phone this week that his company is one of only five in the world that can authorize commercial drone flights near airports to ensure that they don’t interfere with things like air traffic. (Healander said that “near” is typically within five miles of an airport.)

But getting federal clearance for a flight path and understanding air-based risk is only one half of the equation. That’s why Airspace also works with local governments to get data around ground-based risks that the FAA wouldn’t know about. Those risks include things like schools, jails, or even emergency situations that a commercial drone operator would want to know about and avoid when establishing a flight plan for a delivery.

Airspace’s value prop, according to Healander, is that its software can automate that flight plan process quickly and automatically. To illustrate, Airspace Link posted a video on Linkedin this week, showing how the software works. The video is in no way “cool.” There is no dramatic footage of a drone soaring through a forest of skyscrapers. It’s a screen capture video of someone entering the basics of a drone flight: departure point, delivery point, time of flight etc. Once all that information is in, Airspace Link establishes a route that takes into consideration the ground-based risks like schools, establishes a route and altitude path and gets approval from the FAA in under a minute.

We are at the very beginning stages of drone delivery, with Google testing the concept in Virginia, and Uber Eats planning it for next summer in San Diego. If these services catch on with consumers, there will be a halo effect with startups like AirSpace Link popping up to do more of the grunt work so drones deliveries can actually take off and be cool.

Scoop: AirSpace Link Lets You Opt-in Your Address for Home Drone Delivery

While drone deliveries hold a ton of promise for tomorrow (burritos by air in just five minutes!), there are a ton of issues today that drone delivery needs to deal with. And a major hurdle for drone delivery will be the patchwork of state and local laws regulating where, when, and how many drones can fly in a given day.

AirSpace Link is a startup looking to help alleviate those and other administrative issues around drone delivery. The company came out of stealth mode today and launched its drone delivery registry, where people can register their dwelling or business as a location at which drone deliveries can be made.

There are actually four parts to AirSpace Link’s platform:

  • AirRegistry: Where people can opt-in or out of receiving drone deliveries at their home or place of business.
  • AirInspect: A service that handles all of the requisite city and state permitting for delivery companies in order to enable drone delivery.
  • AirNet: Working in conjunction with the FAA, AirNet creates a federally approved air route or “highway in the sky” for each drone delivery. These routes take into consideration things like schools and jails and other landmarks that must be avoided.
  • AirLink: An API that connects participating delivery services with the local governments and collects a fee that is paid to said local governments.

Now you should know that just because you register on AirSpace doesn’t mean that a drone will be dropping by your driveway any time soon. For now, the registry is a way to aggregate interest: Cities and companies alike can gauge how many people opt-in (or out) of drone delivery in various markets.  

Additionally, location registration must be completed manually (for now), with a person actually visiting a site to determine exact landing locations and make other assessments. Michael Healander, Co-Founder of AirSpace Link told me by phone that registry process will eventually be automated, and instead of a standalone site, opting in to drone delivery will be built into individual delivery apps.

Right now, local government rules around drone delivery are “all over the place,” according to Healander. To help cities get started with understanding and drafting drone delivery procedures, AirSpace Link offers a number of consulting packages for city and state governments ranging from $9,000 to $49,000. Eventually, AirSpace Link will also generate revenue through a SaaS model where fees are charged to the delivery companies.

Based in Detroit, MI, AirSpace Link incorporated in March of 2018 and soft-launched, running various tests with different government agencies and delivery companies throughout the past year. The company is founder funded, and Healander says they’re in the process of closing a round of venture funding right now.

Healander says the goal for AirSpace Link is to become a “neutral platform” that will connect any delivery service with any city and the federal government. The question will be how much control bigger companies like Amazon and UPS will want to give up in order to streamline future drone delivery operations.

Permits may be the less sexy side of drone delivery, but they are vital to its growth. Companies like Uber may be accelerating their drone delivery ambitions, but the fastest drones in the world can’t deliver your dinner if they are grounded by the government. Companies like AirSpace Link and AirMatrix, which provides similar air route mapping services, will be the bridge drones will fly over in order to bring you that burrito.