Company Name: AVSS – Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions Inc.
Company HQ: New Brunswick, Canada
Team Size: 15
Focus: Autonomous landing systems that include guided and unguided parachute recovery systems for drone safety, and guided delivery systems for mission critical resupply.
Interview with: Josh Ogden, CEO

​Tell us about your company:
AVSS has been developing autonomous landing systems since 2017. Our first commercial product line in this market is in the commercial drone safety segment, where we have developed and sold globally, guided and unguided parachute recovery systems that are used to enable commercial drones and drone delivery companies to fly in more complex operations, such as over people and beyond-visual-line-of-sight. AVSS’s second product line are guided delivery systems that enable drones to autonomously deliver resupplies for remote medical delivery, military resupply, and environmental disaster support.

When did your company start, and where did the idea for your startup come from?
Our company was founded in 2017 after the co-founders saw a video of Domino’s Pizza wanting to do drone delivery. After discussing the video, we wondered what would happen if the drone failed.

Who is your ideal customer?
Our ideal customer would come from two segments. First, the drone safety segment who need guided parachute recovery systems—such as, drone delivery companies, as well as commercial drone manufacturers that sell to end users for inspection, monitoring, and policing operations in densely populated areas or fly beyond visual line of sight.
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Second, the guided delivery segment of commercial drone manufacturers who need guided delivery for mission critical resupply, supporting remote medical delivery, military resupply, and environmental disaster support use cases.

What can we expect from your company in the near future?
We plan to expand our flight testing and business development teams in New York. Look for an announcement about new drone manufacturer integration projects, as well as new guided delivery technology for drone safety and guided delivery.

Why are you excited about GENIUS NY?
We are excited to be leveraging expertise from the local drone community and working with partners that want to help each other succeed.

What are you most looking forward to while staying in Syracuse?
We are looking forward to warmer winter weather. We also plan to hire and develop our ongoing testing team near the Griffiss International Airport in Rome, New York.

What will you do with the GENIUS funds?
We will use the funds to open our test site at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, New York, hire commercial drone pilots to operate the test site, commercialize our new guided technology for additional use cases, as well as hire additional business development and engineering staff.