Alum's autonomous airline secures $1.3M

Thursday, July 6, 2023

Autonomous airline Ribbit has signed a $1.3 million contract with Transport Canada to start testing its commercial cargo aircraft to deliver goods to northern Canada, starting in 2024. 

Waterloo Engineering alumnus and company co-founder Jeremy Wang (PhD '22, mechanical engineering) says the concept behind Ribbit is fairly straightforward. The company converts small aircrafts from pilot-flown, to self-flying by removing back passenger seats and adding in the appropriate software and hardware.

Through this Transport Canada partnership, the company expects to retrofit a six-seater aircraft, allowing more room for cargo.

Ribbit joined the University of Waterloo’s Velocity Incubator in 2019 while still in its ideation stage. Two years later it completed Canada’s first hands-free gate-to-gate flight, with co-founder Carl Pigeon on board. 

“Ribbit ultimately exists to help improve access to transportation,” said Wang, Ribbit's COO. "Our dream would be a future where anybody can receive goods quickly and reliably no matter where they are located.” 

Wang said the company’s initial goal is to serve northern Canada, where about 120 million pounds of food gets delivered annually, and increase food security in remote communities. 

Go to Autonomous airline set to increase food security in remote communities for the full story.