EMPOWERING
RURAL AREAS

IONA developed an hyper-efficient robotic network for low cost and sustainable deliveries in rural areas.

WHY IONA?

We must reinvent rural deliveries, as a lever for sustainable economic growth and for the 3.5B people living there.

The isle of Iona is a remote area, next to the Isle of Mull in Scotland. Its landscapes and people are welcoming but its logistics is extremely complex.

Our mission statement is to empower rural areas and enable service availability where volumes, environment or population density usually prevent operations.

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Rural Logistics

Delivery became a privilege. Shipping companies are losing money in rural areas, due to half-empty cargo vans operating winding routes, and driver shortages affecting services. Just in the US and Europe, 215M people must wait days, pay expensive surcharges or drive hours to access their mails and parcels.

A recent Scottish Parliament's Report revealed that 1 million Scottish were experiencing denial of service or "postcode penalties" (1/5 of the population). The problem is global, affecting an estimated 5M people in the UK and 100M in Europe. It slows down the local economy and marginalise communities.

Medical, Agritech,
Industrial

The delivery drone utilises a new tilt rotor geometry (IP) that combines vertical take-off and landing with wing-borne flight, making it 4X more energy efficient than any alternative in its category, as well as more capable. It was designed with components off-the-shelf, improving costs with multiple suppliers, scalability with maintenance and operations, and modularity as it adapts its performances to the mission.

When coupled with IONA Hubs, pick-up and drop-off points that enable unmanned battery swap and parcel handling, they become the first fully autonomous delivery network.

Report

NEWS

IONA wins the Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) 2022 programme (DfT)

IONA is joining Carbon13 - the leading Climate Tech Accelerator in the UK 🌱

IONA was granted its Design IP for the ground-breaking Sonnet Quad (eV-STOL) drone! 🎉🚀

WHO WE ARE?

IONA was founded by Etienne Louvet, ex-cleantech/deeptech consultant with an expertise in the economics of autonomous systems (London Business School). The solution was designed by Dr. Saïf-Deen Akanni, one the of best UAV Engineers in the world, ex-Aerodynamicist for Ferrari F1 Team and Genius NY Prize 2019.

Prestigious partners supports the company: incubated at AVIATE + / Cranfield University and The National Robotarium, the team also received funding from the UK Department of Transport and Aerospace UP (European Regional Development Fund).