Alpine 4 Technologies, Ltd., owner of leading small market businesses, announced that it has entered into a binding LOI with Vayu Inc. Vayu builds high-performance vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) hybrid propulsion-based, autonomous aircraft. Its customers and partners range from public and private entities in Australia, Canada and sub-Saharan Africa in a variety of sectors – from critical medical supply transport to infrastructure inspection. Vayu represents Alpine 4’s second recent acquisition in the fast-growing UAV space and will serve as a vital addition to the platform capabilities of Impossible Aerospace. The shareholders of Vayu are primarily leading venture capitalists and angel investors, including Tesla Motors founder’s Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning and Cosmonaut Esther Dyson, as well as public health experts. Like Impossible Aerospace, the transaction will be completed in a reverse triangular merger with a newly formed subsidiary of Alpine 4. Upon meeting the final closing conditions, Vayu will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Alpine 4. Vayu and Alpine 4 expect to have the closing conditions met by January 10th, 2021. Daniel Pepper, the current CEO of Vayu, will continue on in his role as CEO.
Transaction highlights include:
- Advanced UAV autopilot software: The acquisition of Vayu will allow Alpine 4 to incorporate Vayu’s highly advanced and rugged autopilot company-wide for other applications such as with Impossible Aerospace’s US-1 drone.
- Large Medical Market Opportunities: The rural medical markets of ‘last mile’ and ‘middle mile’ delivery that can be supported by Vayu’s drone technology are large and growing. Vayu’s G1 has a payload of 12lb while its G2 aircraft has a payload capacity of up to 44lbs.
- Vertical Manufacturing: Having Vayu within the portfolio of Alpine 4 companies will add more integration opportunities with our subsidiary Quality Circuit Assembly and have cross-pollination manufacturing opportunities for the team at Vayu.
Vayu builds high-performance gas/electric VTOL aircraft that save lives. Founded in 2014 by Daniel Pepper, the company unveiled its X5 in 2016, and its G1 and G2 aircraft in 2020. Vayu’s mission is to solve the hardest and most critical logistics challenges, anywhere in the world, aiming to set the standard and lead the market in safe, reliable, and autonomous VTOL aircraft.
