If you live in a Western city, chances are you are extremely familiar with fast-delivery services: Amazon prime package delivery, food delivery services, and countless others that keep popping up everywhere. While there are many issues that can be raised about these services – how they pay and treat their workers, environmental concerns, amongst others – what about places in the world where delivery is necessary? 

In many countries where infrastructure is lacking and access to healthcare precarious, people are dependent on deliveries from better-equipped cities nearby. Jedsy, a start-up co-founded by Mirko Cesena and Herbert Weirather in 2018, has some groundbreaking answers to these questions. 

Who is Jedsy?

When Italian pilot extraordinaire and three-time world champion Mirko Cesena realised he wanted to use his knowledge and skills in order to make the world a better place, he decided to team up with space and aviation engineer Herbert Weirather to create Jedsy. The drone-based delivery startup’s motto is simple: “deliver when and when it matters”. 

“The demand for fast, secure and reliable deliveries is becoming increasingly important in our fast-paced society. Therefore, our requirement for a delivery drone is to outperform the status quo”. – Herbert Weirather, CEO and co-founder of Jedsy

From the get-go, Jedsy founded their company on three principles: safety, privacy and minimal noise. What this means: the Jedsy drones, which they call gliders, are entirely fault-tolerant – so even if a component breaks, the glider is still able to land safely. The software they use is run through a highly realistic simulation and in real-life before it goes into operations in order to avoid crashes. 

The drones also use Need-to-know sharing, meaning that their operators only get the information they need to see and everything else is blurred at takeoff and landing. Cameras are also covered when docked on the landing station, ensuring maximum privacy protection. Lastly, having the most silent delivery drone on the market is not enough for Jedsy. They are constantly working to reduce noise, and have achieved silent takeoff for particularly noise sensitive environments. 

The drones

What is unique about the Jedsy drones is their docking systems: they have created and patented a mailbox system, as well as landing docks which can easily be installed under a window or on a balcony, both of which their gliders can approach almost silently. 

Another impressive aspect of the Jedsy Glider is its quick and vertical takeoff and landing, designed for agility and versatility. Other key features include its aerodynamics, ideal for long flights, its one-way range of 100km without charging, high energy efficiency, lack of noise (30db) and gliding technique, which makes crashes impossible. 

Of course, the drones are designed to be used in courier services – but not only. In fact, one of the company’s major focus points is healthcare and specifically emergency healthcare, and it is quite groundbreaking. Think about it – in places with limited infrastructure and damaged roads, the Jedsy drones can deliver emergency items in minutes, which would normally take hours on the roads, and this can quite literally save lives. 

Mission Malawi: life-saving drones

Although the company is currently working on many projects, one of their missions which we find most impressive is the Mission Malawi. Active since 2021, this daughter branch is located at a hospital, and runs with the help of the town’s local health centres, which normally receive only one delivery a week. In the case of emergencies, they would need to have access to the one and only ambulance, and to have enough fuel for the journey. 

“Every minute and every second, people are dying,” said Mirko Cesena – and Jedsy’s drones are a much-needed solution. They are able to complete what would normally be a 185 minute long delivery in only 34 minutes, therefore saving lives. The drones are also on average 2.8x faster than ambulances and provide a cost savings of more than 50% compared to the current expenses for the Ministry of Health in Malawi.

The gliders can be equipped with medicine, vaccines, or blood samples, and land exactly where they need to, straight at windows and balconies of health centres and homes. With this mission, not only is Jedsy fulfilling their motto, they are doing so sustainably: the drones are fully electric, and can charge from solar cells when necessary.  

The Jedsy team has set a goal of 50.000 deliveries in Malawi for 2022, and is currently in the process of hiring locals in order to create their Malawi team, who will contribute to the creation of a new standard in medical delivery.

Pictures: Jedsy
Text: Britta Reineke