Deal highlights

• Airbnb of the drone industry: companies and individuals enlist drone services from a community of qualified pilots
• Drone services are estimated to be worth over $13 billion by 2020
• Experiencing organic growth with commercial drone pilots in over 750 cities
• Over 2,000 community members in the United States
• Building one network for autonomous drones and creating global charging network to extend flight times 
• Designing low cost precision landing software for autonomous drones that uses proprietary RTK GPS

Growing demand for drone services, but businesses don’t know how to access it

Demand for drone services is skyrocketing, but the ability to fill this demand is lacking and segmented

Billions of dollars are ahead for Up Sonder’s industry by 2020 according to Goldman Sachs and PwC as businesses will spend billions each year on aerial data for inspecting, monitoring, protecting, reviewing assets and other needs.

To lower costs, businesses are turning to new drone technology to do this better, safer and more quickly. But flying commercial drones is complicated - airspace authorization, certifications, regulations, insurance, flight planning, maintenance, safety protocols, data processing, and more are leaving companies confused and lost.

Businesses need a partner that makes accessing drone services simple, and transparent, while at the same time providing the flexibility to adapt to future changes in the drone industry like autonomous flight.

Up Sonder is the one stop solution for drone services for manned and autonomous missions

Up Sonder is connecting the world to drones with our adaptable marketplace for businesses to book drone services. Today with marketplace 1.0 and in the future with marketplace 2.0.

Marketplace 1.0

Piloted drone services streamlined to fly missions quicker, better, and safer

Booking drone services with Up Sonder

Drone Services

Up Sonder is laser-focused on meeting the skyrocketing demand for drone services. Our marketplace gives businesses easy access to qualified, licensed and insured drone pilots. Up Sonder’s experienced pilots are taking to the air to film real estate, inspect cell phone towers and recon oil & gas facilities.

Drone services are as varied as the industries that use them, but can be as simplified as aerial data collection. The most common form of data collected is videos and photographs, but there has been an increasing need for sensors like thermal cameras and Lidar.

Companies are turning to drones for the simple fact that they make aerial data collection cheaper and quicker.

1. Cheaper: Before, if oil & gas companies wanted aerial photos of pipelines, they had to hire a helicopter for a few thousand dollars. Now they can hire a drone for a few hundred.
2. Quicker: A recent case study by Brasfield & Gorrie, one of the largest privately-held construction firms in the United States, compared traditional land surveying versus drone surveying on a 60-acre construction site. They found that land surveying took 2-3 weeks while drone surveying took only 1-4 days!

Marketplace 2.0 

Adaptable marketplace to meet demand for an autonomous world

• Simple one-click access to autonomous drone services, everything from deliveries to inspections.

• Network of charging stations to power autonomous drone operations with the initial starting locations built directly onto our members’ rooftops. Our vision is to ensure all smart homes of the future are part of the Up Sonder autonomous network.

• Autonomous drone management software that manages all aspects of autonomous operations with A.I. and blockchain built-in for payments, tracking, landing, wireless-charging, taking off, and flight routes.

  

• Currently testing proprietary precision landing/positioning technology with low-cost RTK GPS that makes it possible for a fleet of autonomous drones to use the charging network to increase flight times and service more customers.

Up Sonder appeared on Meet the Drapers and received positive feedback during the episode, including: 

Organic Growth

Today

Organic growth | 50+ missions 

Have a look at some past missions

Marketplace 1.0

Is built for businesses to search and book drone services in their direct area from one simple website, upsonder.com, with upfront transparent pricing. For multiple missions and large needs, Up Sonder has the added benefit for larger enterprise clients to integrate Up Sonder’s API software to bulk order drone missions nationwide.

Commercial drone pilots are the backbone of Up Sonder and we treat them right. Pilots flying for Up Sonder choose their own rate, work hours, accept or reject bookings and have complete control over their listing page that details their work history, expertise, drone features, and past work examples. The best part is Up Sonder drone pilots get to keep 95% of their rate with direct payouts to their bank or via Paypal.

Up Sonder makes 15% from each drone booking by charging a 10% service fee to the client and a 5% service fee to the pilot plus a flat $7 booking fee. For example, if a pilot sets her or his rate at $200 per hour and a client books this pilot for 3 hour, the client will be charged $667. After the mission is complete the pilot receives $570 and Up Sonder $97.     

Marketplace 2.0

Today businesses want to use drones but tomorrow society will rely on drones but there are not enough human pilots to fulfill this demand. Up Sonder will automate its marketplace with an autonomous drone network to help its human pilots. 

An autonomous drone network that is self-sustaining is the only way to keep pace with the everyday tasks of the future such as mail delivery, grocery pick up, medical emergencies, home security, roof inspections, construction monitoring, and even coffee delivered directly to your vehicle during commutes.

The future of drones will grow past today’s commercial use cases and into everyday living - children to business executives to the elderly will be impacted (for the better) by this amazing technology. Up Sonder is building this future with one simple network to handle it all.

Up Sonder is where the world orders drone services both large and small and where third party drone service providers can harness the power of Up Sonder’s “if” (infinity flight) charging network to let their autonomous drones do more and fly further reaching more customers. 

A market full of opportunity

Drones are powerful tools that will change the way we work and live. When you combine their consumer, commercial and governmental use, analysts agree, drones are an opportunity too large to ignore.

Goldman Sachs says that drones are a $100 billion market opportunity by 2020 and estimate that over $13 billion will be spent on commercial and civil use of drones.

Major industries are already using drones and those that offer the most growth opportunity in the near future include construction, oil & gas, agriculture, inspection/insurance, 3D mapping, real estate, journalism and mining among others.

The application of drones for commercial and civil industries is going to revolutionize the way everyone from farmers to firefighters gather data and make informed decisions. In a groundbreaking 2016 report, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) valued the emerging global market for business services using drones at over $127 billion. There’s a gold field of opportunities for UpSonder.

A recent report by Skyward, a Verizon company, found that 92% of companies that implement a drone program have a return on investment within a year. No wonder many are predicting that the market for drone services is about to explode. In fact, Skyward is expecting the commercial adoption of drones to double in the coming years!

Drone market trends

Autonomous drone operation

Drones will increasingly operate themselves. New technology will allow drones to sense and avoid each other and communicate in real time with both the companies that deploy them as well as air traffic control.

Search for energy solutions

Currently battery life is limiting the distance a drone can fly. Everyone from Amazon to Up Sonder is looking for solutions to give drones more power! Ideas include charging networks, more efficient batteries and renewable power sources.

5G networks

5G networks will connect to drones, helping to integrate them into air traffic control systems and allowing them to beam data more efficiently.

Regulation will open up 

As new technology makes drones safer, authorities around the world will soften their regulations on drones allowing widespread operations that are currently restricted such as flying at night and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS).

Smaller sensors + better drones = new opportunities

As sensors (like thermal and Lidar) become cheaper, smaller and lighter drones will be able to carry a more robust set of tools which will further increase their use by commercial and civil entities.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Like many other industries, AI will transform the way drones are used and understood. AI will let drones collect data more efficiently and will allow drones to safely interact with the world around them.

Up Sonder is evolving for a drone future.

Up Sonder is making sure we evolve with these changes that have already started to affect the drone services industry.

Our team is hard at work to ensure each autonomous drone in the future lands and flies with centimeter precision for every mission. We are developing a proprietary low cost RTK GPS that will allow our network of charge points and fleet of drones to be highly scalable and efficient.

Founders invested their own money to build Up Sonder

Up Sonder founders are in it to win it and want to dominate the drone industry. Up Sonder’s CEO mortgaged his home for $100,000 for startup capital to get Up Sonder ready for the drone revolution. Up Sonder’s President invested his life savings and together with the Up Sonder team is preparing for the next stage of growth. In addition, Up Sonder has successfully raised $350,000.  

We've already accomplished a ton, and we're excited about what's next.

United States market is ready for growth

Our drone service marketplace is ready to serve US businesses in their needs for lower costs, shorter project timelines, and increased safety standards. Up Sonder spent 2017 & 2018 building its network of certified commercial drone pilots who are ready to service the needs of businesses in 2019.    

International expansion

The popularity of drones is spreading across the world at speeds faster than businesses can keep up with. Organization is needed and the Up Sonder standard of simple, easy, and transparent access to drone services is needed in other parts of the world. Canada and Europe are the next logical destinations.  

Marketplace 2.0 - Autonomous Drone Network

Up Sonder is embracing autonomous drones by taking concrete steps for them to work side-by-side with Up Sonder drone pilots to cover increased use cases in the future. Up Sonder is preparing by building proprietary advanced technology for ultra-high precision autonomous drone flight and landing, creating drone fleet management software, and designing a network of rapid wireless charging locations to extend the range of autonomous drones.

If we reach our stretch goal of $1 million with this campaign, we will hire extra full-time salespeople and accelerate our growth in 2019.

Join the company changing how the world uses drones!

"I wanted to personally thank you for taking a closer look at Up Sonder and I invite you to invest in the company that is shaping the drone industry. As an investor, you will have my ear, my door will always be open to you, and you will be a part of an exciting chapter in our history as drones integrate into every facet of our lives. My team and I are building a great company and I look forward to you joining us. Thank you."

- Derek