With New Name and Focus, Dronedek Looks to Finally Arrive

CEO Dan O'Toole shares drone delivery platform's vision

By OTTOMATE NEWS | JUN 15, 2023 | Source: ottomate.news

While there are a number of firms working on drone delivery, far fewer are thinking about exactly where those drones will land, and what happens to the food or package it’s carrying after touchdown. That’s where Arrive fits in. The company, which recently rebranded from Dronedek, has raised $6.8 million from a mix of crowdfunding and traditional investors. It’s putting that capital to work to build out “mailboxes as a service” - allowing the seamless movement of goods and supplies between people, robots, and drones. OttOmate recently sat down with company Chairman and CEO Dan O’Toole to hear more about his futuristic visions for the sector. (Long time readers will note how far the company has come since we last chatted with Dan in early 2022.)

OttOmate: Tell us a bit about the decision to rebrand Dronedek to Arrive; what’s changed at the company, and how does this new name communicate that?

Dan O’Toole: Thank you. We found ourselves always saying, we’re not the drone, we’re the Dronedek. Then we would be asked how many drones we have. The new name is aspirational and less limiting. Similar to an Apple or a Google. It is concise and action oriented. Arrive, it’s all here!

O: You just announced a new second-generation “smart mailbox” - can you share some more details on that?

DO: Our gen 1 unit was a large commercial unit with B2B envisioned. We wanted to offer a smaller, sleeker unit that had more of a high tech feel to it. That’s our gen 2 unit. We are now off to gen 2.1, a cross between the two. Stay tuned for numerous offerings coming very soon!

O: Tell us a bit more about what “Mailbox as a Service” means, and what sort of partners are integrated into that concept?

DO: You’ve heard of SaaS: Software as a Service. MaaS is our platform offering. It allows users to subscribe to a host of offerings without all of the expensive barriers to entry. We are at the center of ADNs: Autonomous Delivery Networks. We are putting together the most robust delivery ecosystem the world has ever seen with the biggest companies in the world!

O: Are there particular industries and applications you see Arrive as especially well suited for? Are there some good last-mile delivery, and/or food delivery, applications?

DO: If it’s delivered, it’s [fit for] Arrive. The number of use cases transcends all delivery. Arrive is at the center of the delivery universe and we can say that no wholesale autonomous delivery will happen at scale without Arrive in the ecosystem!

O: What’s the company’s long term vision?

A: Our long term goal is to become a publicly traded company on the tech-heavy Nasdaq. We have applied for the ticker symbol ARRV and are working daily to build the world’s next big thing!

O: How do you see the overall autonomous delivery industry developing, and what’s Arrive’s role in that larger ecosystem?

DO: The new logistics ecosystem will be amazing! We always say better, faster, fresher, cheaper, greener. These are all metrics that Arrive delivers on. The new delivery paradigm will feature autonomous delivery networks (ADNs). We are building out asynchronous delivery that will allow interfacing with robots, drones, driverless vehicles as well as conventional and U.S. mail delivery. Stay tuned. It's all about to change in your favor!