It doesn't have much to do with FedEx or UPS.
“Imagine you invent a new type of cargo airplane,” reads a top-page introduction on the company’s website. “Unmanned, autonomous and cheaper to produce and operate than any aircraft in existence. Imagine it can fit as much cargo as a car can and you can build it in a microfactory wherever its market is.”
That's the mission at Dronamics, a company that is hard at work making these new forms of transport a reality.
Dronamics leaders contend the difference will allow companies to cut the prices of air cargo travel in half, opening up new trade routes and broadening markets.
By any account, this kind of engineering is a tall order.
In fact, the company seems to be working so hard on its core mission that things like web design, to some extent, fall by the wayside, as evidenced in its admission on the site.
“Because what we do is cutting-edge … things like updating a website come second to our mission to disrupt aviation," according to its site. "So your only chance to learn more is to get in touch with us."
A business report from SeeNews shows Dronamics received initial funding from an accelerator, Eleven, under a regional program called JEREMIE administrated by European Union agencies.
Svilen Rangelov, co-founder and head of business development at Dronamics, spoke to Balkan Business Wire about the company's experience scaling up over the past few years.
In characterizing the company's funding strategy, Rangelov said Dronamics is entirely privately funded.
He also underscored the central importance of the company’s mission to make e-commerce better
“We’re specifically building (the vehicles) for e-commerce fulfillment,” Rangelov said. The vehicles can carry cargo loads of up to 771 pounds and go as far as 1,500 miles.
As for Dronamics's operations from Sofia, he said low taxes and relatively low labor costs have helped the company to get where it is today.
“Some of the business environment is very helpful,” Rangelov said. “It has changed a lot for the better over the years.”
To put the word out about what's happening at the company, Dronamics is taking its mission on the road. In 2016, the company maintained a presence at events like the IATA World Cargo Symposium in Berlin, the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, and the China Air Cargo Summit in Shenzhen, China. Dronamics also participates in events within Bulgaria, like the 2016 Webit Festival in Sofia.
Dronamics, he said, is looking to open a U.S. office in the future. It's all part of a plan to get in on the ground floor of an industry that's now set to boom. With the rising volume of online purchasing happening around the world, giants like Amazon are also hard at work integrating drone strategies into their commerce models. Firms like Dronamics can add to what's possible in modern online shopping.