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Tag: DroneUp

FAA certification clears way for DroneUp to scale up

Virginia Beach-based drone delivery company DroneUp has received a Federal Aviation Administration certificate that will allow it to grow its delivery operations.

On Tuesday, the company announcedi t received an FAA Part 119 air carrier certificate under Part 135. The certificate allows DroneUp to carry third-party property as an air carrier and to fly drones up to 5 miles without maintaining a visual line of sight.

“With this certification, and with actual beyond visual line of sight certification,” said DroneUp founder and CEO Tom Walker, “you’re going to see this start to scale very, very quickly, because the cost of doing delivery by drone is not only going to be better and more efficient than some of the other traditional modalities, but it’s safer.”

Previously, DroneUp couldn’t carry cargo owned by others and had to have special arrangements with retailers, limiting their partnerships. Also under the previous Part 107 certification, the company had to maintain sight of the drone, with either the drone operator or a visual observer in contact with the operator watching, and the minimum weather visibility required was 3 miles from the control station.

“It allows us to scale much, much quicker,” Walker said, “and also we can do it more affordably for the customers, because we can fly beyond visual line of sight. We don’t have the additional overhead of the visual observers that we had before.”

DroneUp is the sixth U.S. drone operator to receive a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate, according to the FAA. The company submitted its initial application in May, Walker said.

DroneUp is beginning operations under the Part 135 certification at its location in Murphy, Texas, near Dallas. The tech company will then work to get FAA approval to append the certification to add other locations, starting with the remaining 10 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to get all 11 of those locations in the DFW area operating Part 135 … and then after that, we intend to continue to expand across the Dallas-Fort Worth area until we can successfully cover 80% of that area with drones, demonstrate our ability to do that at scale under Part 135, and then we’ll be expanding into another metro area yet to be announced,” Walker said.

DroneUp will start expanding Part 135 operations in the first quarter of 2025, “and if I have my way, we’ll have all of the entire DFW area that we have now operating as Part 135 by the end of Q1,” Walker said, and then start expanding into new Dallas-Forth Worth locations under Part 135 in the second quarter.

Under the previous certification, the Murphy location could serve 6,000 households, but under the Part 135 certification, it will be able to serve 25,000 households, and with fewer personnel, according to Walker.

DroneUp provides retail delivery services and has conducted several medical supplies delivery projects. The company partnered with Walmart in 2021, and in May 2022, the two announced plans to expand drone delivery services to 4 million homes in six states. In August, DroneUp said it would end Walmart drone delivery in three states to focus on perfecting its service in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

In August 2023, DroneUp announced it would launch an 18-month project to deliver medical supplies and hypertension medication to patients on the Eastern Shore and Tangier Island, in partnership with Riverside Health System, Old Dominion University and others.

Founded in 2006, DroneUp has about 250 employees, of which about 100 are in Virginia. In August 2022, DroneUp announced it planned to add 655 jobs as part of an expansion that includes establishing a $20 million drone testing, training and research and development center at Richard Bland College in Dinwiddie County.

Fahrenheit Advisors announces new COO

Richmond-based consulting firm Fahrenheit Advisors has added Kris Cravey to its executive ranks.

Cravey, formerly chief people officer at Virginia Beach-based DroneUp, will be chief operating officer at Fahrenheit Advisors, the company announced Tuesday.

In his new role, he will take primary responsibility for overseeing the execution of Fahrenheit Advisors’ strategy, growth and client services delivery.

”Kris is another incredible addition to our team as we continue to grow as a firm,” Rich Reinecke, co-managing partner and co-founder at Fahrenheit Advisors, said in a statement. “His track record of building scale while maintaining the culture mirrors our values and core principles. We are excited to welcome Kris to our team and look forward to the impact he will have as we expand nationally.”

Cravey has held leadership roles including vice president of strategy and mergers and acquisitions, business development, operations and support services at Day & Zimmermann, an engineering, staffing and construction firm. He was also managing partner at Atherton Kirk Advisors (now Fahrenheit Advisors), according to his LinkedIn profile.

He started with Fahrenheit Advisors about a year ago as a consultant after serving as DroneUp’s CPO since July 2021.

Cravey earned his doctorate degree in organizational behavior and an MBA from Regent University.

Fahrenheit Advisors was founded in 2010 and consults for middle-market, Fortune 1000, nonprofit and governmental organizations. It has 140 consultants.

DroneUp promotes chief growth officer

Virginia Beach-based DroneUp has promoted Rishap “Rish” Malhotra to be its growth officer, a newly created position at the autonomous drone delivery company.

Malhotra had been DroneUp’s senior vice president of corporate development, and heading up the company’s mergers and acquisitions will be part of his new job, which the company announced Thursday. He will also be responsible for overseeing growth initiatives, including corporate strategy, sales, marketing and corporate development.

“Over the course of several quarters, I have been working closely with Rish to develop our growth strategy centered on our autonomous last mile delivery ecosystem, and I couldn’t be more pleased that we have found a leader in Rish who is ideally suited to now execute that strategy,” Tom Walker, CEO and founder of DroneUp, said in a statement. “With an impressive track record in business growth and a deep understanding of the retail and technology industry, Rish is well-equipped to bring our affordable last mile delivery solutions to leading retailers, [quick-service restaurant] chains and logistics partners.”

Prior to working for DroneUp, Malhotra served in executive roles for J. Walter Thompson, Saatchi & Saatchi and CNBC India.

He earned an MBA from the Mason School of Business at William & Mary, a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Delhi University and a bachelor’s in business administration from Annamalai University.

Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: TOM WALKER

After a 17-year stint as a Navy officer, serving as a nuclear power engineer on submarines, and another 17 years as president of software company Web Teks, Walker launched DroneUp, a provider of aerial drone services, in 2016. The Virginia Beach tech company has grown quickly since then, purchasing Web Teks in 2021 and partnering with Walmart to deliver items by aerial drone, expanding Walmart’s delivery network with 34 drone hubs. Last year, DroneUp announced it would establish a $20.2 million drone research, training and testing center at Richard Bland College in Petersburg.

DroneUp has about 400 employees, all in Virginia, and this year, it entered into partnerships with Carilion Clinic and Riverside Health System to deliver medications. In 2022, the company launched a $7 million headquarters expansion, adding 510 jobs in Virginia Beach and 145 positions at its Richard Bland center, where it trains DroneUp pilots. In the past year, DroneUp’s deliveries have expanded to six states: Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Utah.

DroneUp to deliver meds to Eastern Shore

Virginia Beach-based unmanned flight company DroneUp will launch a project to deliver medications via drone to patients on the Eastern Shore and Tangier Island as part of a collaboration with Riverside Health System and the Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy (VISA) at Old Dominion University, among other partners.

The project received $1.877 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s SMART Grants Program as one of 59 winning proposals out of a pool of 389 applications. The medical cargo drone delivery project, which was Virginia’s only SMART Grant-winning entry, will first test and plan delivery of prescription medicines to patients living in rural parts of the Eastern Shore and Tangier Island, according to the Monday announcement. After stage one is complete, the project will move into full implementation. Drones will leave Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital carrying medications to patients’ doorsteps, and both the hospital and patients will be able to track the drones’ progress in real time.

Riverside will begin the program with a focus on delivering hypertension medicines, as the condition is more common in the Eastern Shore than in other parts of the state.

In addition to Riverside, DroneUp and VISA, other partners in the medication delivery project include the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission and Virginia Innovative Partnership Corp., which includes the Unmanned Systems Center.

“We are excited to see the first medical cargo drone take flight from RSMH in May,” says Nick Chuquin, president of Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital, based in Onancock. “The Eastern Shore is a unique geographical area with a rural makeup that can pose accessibility challenges for patients in need of prescription medication. We know that drone service delivery to our patients living in rural areas of our community will not only improve access to medications but also improve patient outcomes and overall health.”

According to the announcement, the partnership is working closely with USDOT to finalize documentation and begin project work on June 1.

DroneUp, founded in 2016, announced in August 2022 that it planned to add 655 jobs as part of an expansion that includes establishing a $20 million drone testing, training and research and development center at Richard Bland College in Dinwiddie County. In May 2022, DroneUp and Walmart announced plans to expand drone delivery services to 4 million homes in six states. Walmart has a minority stake in DroneUp.

DroneUp takes off

Virginia Beach’s DroneUp LLC is riding the leading edge of the unmanned aerial vehicle industry wave.

Founded in 2016, the company, which specializes in commercial drone delivery, flight services and software, has grown its ranks from three to 530 employees. Retail giant Walmart Inc. is a new partner, and DroneUp is close to completing a $7 million expansion at its headquarters.

In an August 2022 news conference with Gov. Glenn Youngkin, DroneUp announced it was taking off in a big way, adding 655 jobs as part of an expansion that will include establishing a $20 million drone testing, training and research and development center at Richard Bland College in Dinwiddie County. DroneUp plans to add 510 jobs in Virginia Beach and 145 positions at the Richard Bland center.

“Virginia is extremely fortunate that we have DroneUp here because they have really put the industry on the map as far as the drone technology goes and package delivery,” says Tracy Tynan, director of the Unmanned Systems Center at Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp., a state- affiliated nonprofit that supports emerging companies and technologies in the commonwealth through grant programs and strategic initiatives.

DroneUp’s “growth has been amazing,” says David Bowles, executive director of the Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy at Old Dominion University. “They’re a model, I think, of what you can do.”

DroneUp CEO Tom Walker says the pandemic was one factor in DroneUp’s recent growth. During lockdown, when people couldn’t congregate or travel, drones offered a remote solution for ongoing needs.

“When COVID-19 first hit, it was a very, very unfortunate thing for society and for the nation, but it was a very positive thing for our industry,” he says. “We still needed to do roof inspections and cell tower inspections and infrastructure inspections. … We were able to deploy drones to do those inspections that traditionally they’d not used them for.”

DroneUp’s recently inked deal with Walmart is another contributing factor to the company’s growth, Walker says. A contract to build out Walmart’s drone delivery network was announced in December 2021 and package delivery was offered at three Walmart locations in the retailer’s home state of Arkansas. In May 2022, DroneUp and Walmart announced plans to expand drone delivery services to reach 4 million homes across six states with drone hubs operating from 34 U.S. Walmart sites. Three hubs are located at Virginia Beach Walmart locations, with a 1-mile delivery range for up to 10-pound packages. Walmart has a minority stake in DroneUp, as well as two seats on DroneUp’s board.

The DroneUp Flight Academy at Richard Bland College is already preparing the next generations of the company’s flight engineers. As of December 2022, Richard Bland had trained 170 full-time DroneUp employees.

Richard Bland President Debbie Sydow says she’s excited the college is part of DroneUp’s workforce development pipeline. Trainees are not only prepped to make deliveries for DroneUp but they also earn 12 college credits in courses such as  Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems I and II, Components & Maintenance, and Remote Pilot Ground School.

“These students are getting prepared to do a specific job, but they’re also accruing college credit and hopefully continuing to build their list of credentials that allow them to continue to grow in this field,” Sydow says.

The college’s rural location offers plenty of open sky for drone training, Walker says, as well as available classroom space and student housing. “It had all of the facilities we needed.”

A delivery hub has been set up at the school and 1,000 workers are expected to graduate by the end of this year.

Sydow says having DroneUp on campus aligns with similar partnerships the school already has with advanced manufacturers. Walker says it has also created an opportunity to expose currently enrolled students to a new industry. Discussions are underway on how to expand DroneUp’s training program to existing college students.

“We’re looking at all those ways that we can really turn this into a major resource [for Virginia] that will go well beyond the kinds of uses that are part of what DroneUp is doing now,” Sydow says. “And DroneUp is fully supportive of that.”

September 2022 Top Five

The top five most-read daily news stories on VirginiaBusiness.com from Aug. 15 to Sept. 14 included two items focusing on TowneBank, the No. 1 bank in Hampton Roads by market share.

1  |   TowneBank to acquire Farmers Bank

Suffolk-based TowneBank agreed to acquire Windsor-headquartered Farmers Bankshares Inc., parent company of Farmers Bank, in a $56 million deal. (Aug. 18)

2  |   Va. Beach’s DroneUp to add 655 jobs

The Virginia Beach-based unmanned aerial vehicles firm announced a $27 million expansion that will include a drone center at Richard Bland College. (Aug. 24)

3  |   258 Va. companies make this year’s Inc. 5000

Richmond-based IT staffing firm Summit Human Capital was the top-ranked Virginia company on Inc.’s 2022 list of the nation’s 5,000 fastest-growing privately held companies. (Aug. 16)

4  |   Richmond picks Diamond District development team

The city selected a joint venture including Richmond-based Thalhimer Realty Partners to build a new baseball stadium as the centerpiece of a mixed-use neighborhood revitalization project. (Sept. 12)

5  |   TowneBank names new CEO

On Jan. 1, 2023, William “Billy” I. Foster III, the bank’s market president for Central Virginia and the Carolinas, will succeed J. Morgan Davis, who is retiring. (Aug. 26)

DroneUp appoints second Walmart exec to board

Virginia Beach-based DroneUp LLC has appointed David Guggina, Walmart Inc.’s senior vice president of innovation and automation, to its board of directors, the commercial drone delivery and flight services company announced Monday.

“DroneUp has been a key player in making customer delivery via drone a reality for millions of customers across the country,” Guggina said in a statement. “I am honored to join the DroneUp board as the company builds on its reputation of reliability and convenience for businesses and consumers.”

During the last four years, Guggina has led the roll out of automation technology in Walmart’s supply chain network and implementation of last mile deliveries. He has also held senior roles overseeing product, engineering and operations with Walmart. He is based in Walmart’s headquarters city of Bentonville, Arkansas, according to his LinkedIn account.

A provider of drone services for Walmart, DroneUp announced a partnership with the retailer in 2021 to provide drone delivery services at 34 sites around the nation with the capacity to reach 4 million homes. Walmart has a minority stake in DroneUp.

Guggina previously worked at Amazon.com Inc. for nine years. He started in fulfillment operations and advanced to general manager of customer service operations. Prior to that, Guggina was a warehouse group leader program at Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC.

“Over the course of his career, David has been at the forefront of transformational changes that have delivered extraordinary warehouse and operational efficiencies to improve the customer service experience,” DroneUp founder and CEO Tom Walker said in a statement. “We are thrilled to welcome David to our board at a time when DroneUp is pushing the boundaries of delivery and customer expectations.”

DroneUp’s other board members are:

  • Eric Grubman, chairman of SGHC Ltd.
  • Thomas Walker, CEO of DroneUp
  • Thomas R. Ward, executive vice president and chief ecommerce officer for Walmart U.S.
  • Thomas R. Frantz, chairman emeritus and partner at Williams Mullen
  • Jerrold L. Miller, CEO of The Miller Group

Founded in 2016, DroneUp works with more than 20,000 drone pilots. Last week, DroneUp and Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that DroneUp is adding 655 jobs as part of a $27 million expansion of its headquarters and establishment of a testing, training, and research and development center at Richard Bland College.

Va. Beach’s DroneUp to add 655 jobs

Virginia Beach-based DroneUp LLC is adding 655 jobs as part of a $27 million expansion that will include establishing a drone testing, training and research and development center at Richard Bland College, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced during a news conference Wednesday at the Executive Mansion in Richmond.
DroneUp, which specializes in commercial drone delivery and flight services and software, will invest $20 million to establish the college center and $7 million to expand its Virginia Beach headquarters at 160 Newtown Road. The headquarters, currently about 15,000 square feet, will expand to about 80,000 square feet.
Youngkin and DroneUp founder and CEO Tom Walker began discussing the project in February.
“DroneUp’s decision to expand its footprint across Virginia shines a spotlight on the advantages, the strengths, that are providing this great growth platform for not just companies,” Youngkin said, “but for Virginians: our best in class location right here, right here on the East Coast with a port that serves the world, a world-class infrastructure beyond our port, with investment in roads and broadband in order to connect Virginia, a highly skilled workforce that is the envy of the nation in a top-tiered education system. And when we bring together this winning formula, companies win and Virginia wins.”
The company will add 510 jobs at its headquarters and it will create 145 jobs for drone operator trainers at the training center. DroneUp currently has about 300 employees but expects to have about 750 by the end of this year, DroneUp founder and CEO Tom Walker said.
“When you’re growing that fast, you’re hiring in everything. You’re hiring in marketing, you’re hiring in finance, you’re hiring in technology,” Walker said, referencing the fact that DroneUp’s new headquarters jobs will be divided across a variety of fields.
DroneUp will open three drone hubs at Walmart Inc. locations in Virginia in the next two to three months that the company will use in the new operator training program, Walker said. Those hubs will be at two locations in Chesterfield County and one in Chesapeake, said Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer. However, announcing locations is a bit premature, said T. Preston Lloyd Jr., a Williams Mullen partner representing DroneUp: “At this time, DroneUp is still negotiating and exploring where those final hub locations will be.”
A provider of drone services for Walmart, DroneUp announced a partnership with the retailer in 2021 to provide drone delivery services at 34 sites around the nation with the capacity to reach 4 million homes. Walmart has a minority stake in DroneUp and a seat on its board.
The concrete for the training facility was poured Tuesday, Walker said, and the building facilities will be delivered Thursday.
“Right now, we’re having to train these people … at various ball fields … in Virginia Beach and in Arkansas and other places,” he said. “But my anticipation is we will [begin] training [at Richard Bland College] in two weeks.”
The training program will run six weeks total. Students will learn online for two weeks, and then DroneUp will fly them to Richard Bland for two weeks of training before transitioning to training with delivery operators at one of the area Walmart stores using its services.
Richard Bland College anticipates students earning nine college credits through the program, which equates to a Federal Aviation Administration micro-credential in unmanned aerial systems, said college President Debbie Sydow.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Virginia Beach, Dinwiddie County, Richard Bland College and Virginia’s Gateway Region to secure the projects. Virginia competed against Arizona, New York, North Carolina and Texas for the projects. Youngkin approved a $928,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund and $4 million from the Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission approved a grant for $111,000 from the Tobacco Region Opportunity Fund for the project and funding and services to support DroneUp’s employee training activities provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.
Founded in 2016, DroneUp works with more than 20,000 drone pilots.

DroneUp taps former NFL exec as board chair

Virginia Beach-based DroneUp LLC announced Tuesday that former NFL executive Eric Grubman is the company’s new board chairman.

“Eric is incredibly respected across many business sectors for his tremendous vision, insight and passion for technology,” DroneUp CEO and founder Tom Walker said in a statement. “We are truly fortunate to have him as our chairman of the board to tap into that well of experience as we continue to innovate and keep the end user’s needs at the forefront of every decision.”

Grubman, who was executive vice president of the NFL from 2004 to 2018, said, “I strongly believe in technology’s capacity to improve people’s lives. Drone operations have proven to be value-added in advancing safe and reliable options for consumers, patients and business organizations. I believe DroneUp has the ability to drive a set of worldwide industry standards.”

A special purpose acquisition company that Grubman founded in 2020, Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp., merged this year with Super Group, the parent company of online gambling platforms Betway and Spin. The merger created a $4.75 billion publicly traded holding company, SGHC Ltd., which Grubman chairs and that continues to operate under the Super Group brand.

Prior to his time with the NFL, Grubman served as co-president of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group. He began his career with Goldman Sachs, starting in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions department in 1987. In 1996, he was elected partner and became co-head of its energy and power group. He also spearheaded Goldman’s strategic advisory efforts in its professional sports division.

DroneUp provides aerial data collection, training, program integration and equipment sales and is an authorized government drone services provider in 13 states. It has more than 190 active waivers and authorizations with the Federal Aviation Administration. Walker founded the company in 2016. In December 2021, Walmart Inc. and DroneUp partnered on drone delivery operations. DroneUp also acquired air traffic management software company AirMap Inc. in December 2021.