While most drone delivery companies are still doing demos, MightyFly just closed a $50 million deal.
The San Francisco Bay Area startup signed a five-year contract with a California healthcare diagnostics provider on October 2nd. Not a pilot. Not a test. A commercial service launching in 2027 that will transport hundreds of diagnostic test kits per flight between pharmacies, clinics, retail stores, and labs across California, Nevada, and eventually nationwide.
Here's why it matters: most drones carry one package between two points. MightyFly's Cento aircraft carries hundreds of test kits and hits multiple destinations on a single route. That changes the unit economics completely.
The Cento is a hybrid eVTOL with a 1,000-mile range, 100-pound payload, and 150 mph cruising speed. It takes off vertically but flies like a fixed-wing aircraft for efficiency. Optional cold storage keeps temperature-sensitive materials viable in transit. The company has completed over 400 flights in 2025, including fully automated cargo loading and unloading.
MightyFly claims deliveries are three times faster than ground transport with 70% lower operating costs. Emissions drop 64% compared to vans and 92% compared to small aircraft. The US pharmaceutical logistics market exceeds $100 billion annually. Healthcare logistics approaches $90 billion. Both are projected to double in the next decade.
The contract serves major retailers including Amazon, Walmart, CVS, and Kroger through the healthcare provider's network. MightyFly already has $210 million in signed commercial letters of intent. The US Air Force ran successful demonstrations in June 2025. The FAA authorized testing in five California airspaces up to 5,000 feet.
Design lesson: The breakthrough isn't the flying. It's the autonomous loading system. Most drone delivery fails at the last 50 feet when you need humans to load and unload packages. MightyFly built that into the aircraft. The entire logistics chain runs autonomously, not just the flight.
Reality Check: Waymo's New York Problem
Waymo got its autonomous vehicle testing permit extended in New York City through the end of 2025. Sounds like progress. It's not.
The permit allows eight Jaguar I-Pace vehicles in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn with a human safety operator behind the wheel. Waymo can't carry passengers. That requires separate licenses from the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission, which the company won't confirm it's pursuing. New York has no permitting structure for driverless operation. Legislation exists but hasn't passed.
Waymo has been trying to operate in NYC since 2021. Four years later: supervised tests with eight vehicles in limited areas. Compare this to San Francisco, where Waymo delivers approximately one million rides per month.
The company operates commercial services in San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. It plans to expand to Miami, Washington DC, Dallas, Denver, and Nashville within the next year. New York would be different. The density, the chaos, the narrow streets, the aggressive drivers.
The pattern is clear. Robotaxis work where regulations, infrastructure, and operating conditions align. They struggle where any of those three factors create friction. New York has friction in all three categories.
That's it for today.
MightyFly shows what happens when you solve the entire logistics problem, not just the flying part. Waymo shows that even the best technology hits walls when cities aren't ready.
Forward this to someone building autonomous systems.