Introducing Swapit Air: Drone Delivery in Hong Kong for Preloved and New Products

Note: This was our April Fool’s Day joke on April 1st, 2017. Read the clarification blog post here: Swapit Air: April Fool’s (for now)

Download:
Swapit Air Press Release

Today, Swapit proudly announces the world’s first commercial drone delivery service: Swapit Air. In its pilot phase, it is be available all across Hong Kong. Starting on Monday April 3rd, parcels can be delivered door-to-door or better roof-to-roof using our now fully established drone station network with hundreds of locations all over Hong Kong.

SWAPIT AIR INTRO

HOW IT WORKS

On the Swapit mobile app, buyers who purchase an item from a seller can now book a delivery of the item via drone. You can choose to deliver it to your home or work location.  The seller then drops the product off one of our hundreds of drone delivery stations. A Swapit Air delivery drone knows automatically which parcel it is and where it should be delivered to. The drone takes off and within max. 10 minutes, the item arrives at the buyer’s building.

Here is how our drones looks like:

Currently the maximum delivery envelope of a parcel is 15x15x15 cm. We will soon extend that through an upgrade of our fleet and expect full operation with hundreds of drones flying over Hong Kong by the end of 2017.

SWAPIT AIR DRONE FLEET TECH SPECS

Each Swapit Air drone consists of a carbon fiber body, arms and rotor blades. They come with very durable characteristics and yet are lightweight. The autopilot in Swapit Air drones is based on the open-source PX4 autopilot which has been field tested for many years. Low-latency command & control channel is provided by Sky Drone solutions and operates on MAVLink / UART interfaces on the drone-side as well as local TCP-servers on our Swapit Air ground control center. In case of any emergency, a remote Swapit Air drone operator in our ground control center can take over control of the drone and fly it to safety.

WHERE ARE THE LOCATIONS

The Swapit app offers a full list of drone delivery locations. To find a location near you, please download Swapit from: http://get.swapit.la/now

Some of the most popular drone stations are located on roof tops of famous buildings like the International Commercial Centre, Hopewell Centre and more. Have a look:

Swapit Air drone locations are already deployed at hundreds of buildings, but the number of buildings will be extended within and with a target of covering around 1,000 buildings across Hong Kong. Building owners who would like to participate, may contact us directly.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST

In our pilot phase, drone delivery is free-of-charge. Eventually, we will charge a delivery fee for Swapit Air, but it will be at very competitive prices compared to local courier and parcel services. As there is minimal manual labour involved and the entire Swapit Air architecture has been automated and our drones are flying in full autonomous mode, delivery charges can be at very low rates compared to existing traditional surface delivery.

COLLABORATING ON INNOVATION

This cutting edge technology was developed in collaboration with Sky Drone – a leading drone technology company. Sky Drone’s unique technology of connecting drones with ground control stations, with each other and with their Skynet cloud, using 4G / LTE technology, allows Swapit to fly drones remotely beyond line of sight in a secure and reliable way. Military-grade encryption of such data channels and controls, ensures secure communication and reliable operation of our Swapit Air drone fleet.

Going to infinity and beyond!

Upgrade Swapit today to unlock Swapit Air for you!
Free Download: http://get.swapit.la/now

Sign up on our website to get updated when Swapit Air launches in your city: http://www.swapit.la/#swapit-air

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About Sky Drone:
Parcel drone delivery, non-line-of-sight flights, remote drone control from anywhere in the world and similar technologies are available already. Sky Drone does provide high-end solutions in that field and everyone who is interested to find out more, please contact ASky Drone directly.

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Press Release: Hyper-local Marketplace App Swapit Grabs Seed Funding from Aria Ventures

We are proud to announce Swapit’s first investor who shares our passion and chose to join Swapit on our journey ahead.

Aria Ventures is taking a leap of faith with us and we appreciate the trust they put in our team and execution.

Here is the official press release:

Leading Marketplace Platform Will Use Funds to Dominate Local Market and Prepare for APAC Expansion.

HONG KONG, Dec. 10, 2015 – Swapit, the unique hyper-local marketplace for trading pre-loved items, announced today they have raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Aria Ventures, a division of The Aria Group (ARIA). The financing will be used to fund Swapit’s continued market domination in Hong Kong, regional market expansion and for further investment in its proprietary technology platform. Kevin Kwong, CEO and Managing Partner at ARIA, will join Swapit’s board of directors.

“Swapit has rapidly developed a leadership position in the fast growing mobile-first market for trading pre-loved goods.” said Kevin Kwong. “What Patrick and the team have developed over the past months is impressive, and we’re excited to be working together to create a global market leader. Swapit is a great example of the type of founder-led, capital-efficient business that we like to invest in.”

“With their headquarters in Hong Kong and extensive investments in the region, ARIA is an ideal partner as we continue to scale our business regionally into specific markets in the Asia Pacific region.” said Patrick Kosiol, CEO of Swapit. “We’re excited to have a partner on board that provides us not only with capital, but also vast strategic experience in our market.”

Founded in 2015 in Hong Kong, Swapit operates a hyper-local mobile marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers, who are already nearby each other. By providing an exclusive real-time experience combined with their award-winning design, Swapit has already attracted thousands of traders across the territory. Furthermore, Swapit has been accepted into industry-leading accelerator programs, such as SoftLayer Catalyst, Microsoft BizSpark and Facebook’s FbStart, which provide access to over US$200,000 worth of products and services.

About Swapit

Swapit Limited is a technology-driven company that is revolutionizing the way people trade pre-loved and new goods in densely populated areas. Led by mobile entrepreneurs with a combined industry experience of over 40 years, Swapit is built from the ground-up, as a largely scalable business to ensure rapid growth and high margin revenue generation. By focusing on a superior customer experience, the Swapit team makes product decisions purely based on excelling customer happiness. For more information, visit: http://www.swapit.la

The Swapit logo is available at: http://press.swapit.la

About Aria Ventures

Aria Ventures, a division of The Aria Group, provides early stage seed funding to technology startups globally. Its mission is to find talented entrepreneurs with innovative ideas that have the potential to be a significant disruptive force in their respective industries.

The Aria Group is a Hong Kong-based family office with a multi-strategy investment platform and invests in various asset classes globally, including fixed income, equities, real estate, private equity and other alternative investments such as hedge funds.

A PDF version is available as well.

This press release can also be found on PRLOG at Hyper-local Marketplace App Swapit Grabs Seed Funding from Aria Ventures.