RigiTech: The Venture Leader Mobile connecting hospitals and diagnostics laboratories through automated inter-city drone delivery links

09.02.2024 08:30, Rita Longobardi

Meet Adam Klaptocz, CEO of RigiTech. The engineering startup integrates software, hardware, and communication systems into a unified, turnkey delivery solution, streamlining the entire logistics process. Adam and the other Swiss National Mobile Team members will head to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February.

Name: Adam Klaptocz
Location: Prilly, Switzerland
Nationality: Swiss, Polish, Canadian
Graduated from: EPFL
Job title: Co-founder and CEO
Number of employees: 23
Money raised: >3.5M CHF


 

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Can you tell us who your product or solution helps, and how?
Our aerial logistics system establishes seamless logistical connections between customer sites through direct point-to-point routes of up to 100 km. Whether sending blood samples for testing in an urban laboratory, dropping replacement parts on an offshore wind turbine, or sending postal packages to island archipelagoes, our autonomous drones can do it near-instantly.

What market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup in that market?
Our initial market is B2B logistics – laboratory and hospital networks, industrial supply chains or middle-mile postal delivery – and is projected to reach over 30B CHF by 2030. As a dedicated full-service OEM, we believe we can scale internationally more quickly through operating partners while remaining nimble enough to address diverse market segments.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
I’ve been involved in both the drone and the humanitarian industries during my 15-year career. The idea for RigiTech started budding around 2017, after travelling to remote areas of Peru, Nepal and the Philippines. Access to goods was severely limited due to the lack of roads or isolation of islands – why can’t we use drones to ferry critical items?

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how do you think it will help you achieve your vision?
We’re looking for partners to help us scale our solution beyond the first dozen systems and into the hundreds. Not only does this require investment, but expertise in mobile communications, cybersecurity, aerospace-grade manufacturing and AI.
 

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What are your team’s key achievements to date?
We’ve now flown over 2,500 drone flights and 30,000 km, received long-range flight approvals on 5 continents, and operated the first-ever long-term lab-test delivery route in France. What I am the most proud of was our recent demonstration of fully-automated spare parts delivery to an offshore wind turbine – imagine approaching a 100m-tall turbine that’s 30km from the coast, approaching it within 2 meters, dropping a package and flying back, all without human interaction?!

Is there a key principle or value that guides you as you build your company?
Our first and foremost value is to create impact with our products. If our drones can provide more equitable access to goods, whether you’re in the middle of a city or the middle of nowhere, then it has all been worth it.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
Perseverance is critical – getting through the hard times (and there will always be more hard times) requires grit, and a laser focus on what you hope to achieve. Grit comes with a strong support system of family and friends.

What is your favourite productivity hack or tool and why?
I’m known as the Asana Police at RigiTech – this work management tool is critical to keeping our growing team aligned on our goals, but tools only work if they’re used extensively and deeply, so I regularly annoy my colleagues by pushing them to put everything in there – Asana is the RigiTech bible!

What was your dream job when you were a child?
Professional skier. If that didn’t work out, I wanted to drive the snow-cats grooming the trails. Neither worked out.

Do you recommend a podcast you want to share with us?
I’ve been listening to Economics Explained recently – interesting macro-economic overviews of the economies of countries around the world, explaining complex concepts to non-experts like myself.