New Partnership to Enable Flying Cell Phone Towers

Flying Labs and their partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin American often work in areas with limited to no cell connectivity. This can limit the impact of social good projects such as wildlife protection efforts. This lack of connectivity can also present severe problems during humanitarian disasters, for example. This explains why partners are increasingly asking Flying Labs about the possibility of using drones to provide connectivity in rural areas and during major events triggered by the climate crisis. 

This critical challenge opens up an entirely new set of opportunities for Flying Labs. They already have demonstrated expertise in the use of both mapping and cargo drones. Also, they are already connected to key actors in government, industry, and social good organizations in their countries. As such, they are well-positioned to further the potential of flying cell phone towers. 

We are thus delighted to announce our formal partnership with the startup company Spooky Action, whose work was recently featured on Forbes and elsewhere. Spooky Action is a Minneapolis based robotics company that builds tethered drones that fly forever. Their mission is "to use intelligent robotics to solve the world's persistent problems." The company evolved from an idea that founder, Rahul Tiwari had while browsing a Reddit interview about anti-poaching efforts in South Africa. He teamed up with his high school friend Dan Dao, and the two problem-solved their way to Superfly, their flagship tethered drone system.

We're thrilled about partnering with WeRobotics in the ongoing effort to use our technology to make a positive change in the developing world. WeRobotics gives us access to the folks on the ground who understand the problems of their communities and can help us deploy our systems in a meaningful way.

According to Rahul, "we're thrilled about partnering with WeRobotics in the ongoing effort to use our technology to make a positive change in the developing world. WeRobotics gives us access to the folks on the ground who understand the problems of their communities and can help us deploy our systems in a meaningful way. We look forward to supplying them with the technology they need to solve their most pressing problems."

Kenya Flying Labs and Spooky Action have already held a kick-off meeting to explore concrete project opportunities in Kenya. Multiple meetings with other Flying Labs will follow this. Relevant Flying Labs will be directly trained by Spooky Action to operate their technology safely, responsibly, and effectively. Together, they will pursue joint projects with mobile network operators and a range of social good organizations. 

WeRobotics is excited to enable and support these strategic partnerships. Spooky Action joins a growing network of formal technology partners at WeRobotics. These include DJI, senseFly, Parrot, Dronistics, ESRI, Pix4D, Picterra, DroneDeploy, DroneLogBook, and AWS. Thanks to these partnerships, WeRobotics can accelerate the exchange of knowledge and appropriate technologies to local experts across Flying Labs in more than 25 countries across the Global South.