SkyDrop grounds its fleet

Matthew Sweeny

Unfortunately, the Federal Aviation Administration regulations to enable commercial drone delivery at scale continue to take much longer than anticipated. On July 24, 2023, SkyDrop completed the first store-to-door drone delivery approved by the Civil Aviation Authority in New Zealand history, successfully delivering Domino’s and FedEx packages. On this same day, SkyDrop ran out of money and furloughed the team.

The board spent the next six months using our best business judgment to maximize value. We proposed a series of deals, the most exciting of which involved open-sourcing SkyDrop’s drone delivery kit in return for a potential long-term revenue stream. Despite our best efforts, we could not achieve a soft landing. Today, SkyDrop filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

SkyDrop achievements

On July 24, 2023, we experienced first-hand customers who loved SkyDrop drone delivery, and we believe SkyDrop achieved product market fit. After nearly a decade of hard work, our drone that made the first FAA-approved drone delivery in American history in July 2015, is now on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. When I founded SkyDrop (formerly Flirtey), the goal was to create an industry, not just a company. Although we didn’t achieve the financial outcome we wanted, we believe we achieved our founding goal, because we succeeded in pioneering the drone delivery industry.

Thank you to everyone

We want to thank SkyDrop’s incredible team for their hard work and dedication, our investors for supporting the company throughout its journey, and our many partners.