Airboard

AirBoard is a Latvian-based industrial drone manufacturer specialising in heavy lift drone applications such as agriculture.

In 2018 the company released AirBoard AGRO – autonomous agriculture drone for pesticide and fertiliser spraying. The drone has a cargo lifting a capacity of 220 pounds (100 kilograms) that is used for pesticide transportation in-air. AGRO is targeted to vineyards. The drone is claimed to be more precise than helicopter, which could lead to less pesticides being used. The capacity of AGRO is 60 litres and it is claimed to be 50 times faster than manual spraying and twice as cost-effective as using a helicopter. AirBoard AGRO is co-axial octo-copter and provides a 150 litre per hectare coverage with a productivity of 6 hectares an hour. The drone is 100% electrically powered.

AGRO has downward facing sensors to assist in maintenance of stable altitude even on uneven ground. AGRO has been used by vineyard owners in Germany, has agreements with German customers and pilot tests in Norther Europe. The company says that it has solved a problem with vineyards in mountainous areas where tractors cannot be used. When helicopters spray pesticides only 30% reaches the plants.

The company was founded by Latvian entrepreneur Elviss Straupenieks. Elviss was named as one of the 25 and Under in Northern Europe by Nordic Business Report in 2018. In 2017 the team took part in Boost VC, a San Mateo based accelerator, run by the fourth generation venture capitalist Adam Draper and were mentored by the investor Tim Draper. In 2018 team was backed by Alchemist Accelerator.

AirBoard’s engineering team consists of Latvian engineers with 30 years of experience in robotics. They have engineers that have worked on heavy lift drone aerial systems and the fastest electric racing car and include the FAI fastest drone racing pilot in the world. In 2018 the company was listed as one of the top 10 Latvian startups to watch by ArcticStartup technology blog.