Get to know the GENIUS NY Cohort 8 teams leading up to the Pitch Finals on Oct. 28, 2024.

Lars Erik Fagernaes was in school at MIT when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He and his co-founders saw the need in their home country of Norway for a safer, more efficient way to deliver medical supplies to people. Their goals were big. They wanted to be able to transport blood samples and travel more than 80 miles, which hadn’t been done before.

“We were three students with no money. People said you guys are completely crazy. This is never going to happen,” said Fagernaes. “We took our own money, worked Monday through Sunday, 16 hours a day and finished the first flight in February 2021.”

After the flight, Fagernaes and his co-founders at their company, Aviant, were featured on the MIT homepage. Fagernaes said things really started to take off from there. They started contracts in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Germany where people can download an app and have a drone deliver an item directly to their house. Aviant’s conducted over 5,000 flights and raised more than $2 million in revenue.

European drone regulations enacted in January 2021 enabled Aviant to make these direct deliveries, known as last mile logistics. The United States is working on developing regulations of its own, and the Aviant team wants to be ready when it does.

“There are basically only two places you could go [that has needed UAS infrastructure]. It’s Syracuse, and it’s Texas. Our drones are specialized for harsh winter conditions. So, Syracuse just made perfect sense,” Fagernaes said.

Aviant learned about the GENIUS NY program through an existing connection, GENIUS NY alum AVSS. Aviant uses AVSS parachutes on their drones. It was the AVSS team that encouraged them to apply. But Fagernæs said they’d stayed away from accelerator programs in the past because they can be too general and take time away from working on specialized issues. But GENIUS NY is the exception.

“We wouldn’t know where to start if we were to engage with the U.S. ecosystem without GENIUS NY,” Fagernaes said. “First of all, you get the investments. Second, you get an introduction to the environment. And third, and most importantly of all, we get to know the infrastructure and get ready for our commercial launch in the U.S.”

Aerialoop will present its technology at the GENIUS NY Pitch Finals during Innovation Night.
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