uplift

200 million Nigerians need healthcare and other medical supplies on time as delay could mean death.

Uplift is a startup that focuses on producing locally made UAV's, to strengthen the health supply chain in the remote parts of Nigeria, through last-mile delivery of medicine.

How it works. 

• A customer makes an order via call, sms, whatsapp, E- mail or our mobile app. 
• Our customer care representative receives this order checks that payment has been made and proceeds to receive payment for the service. 
• A staff then prepares the package for delivery and loads it onto the drone. All preflight procedures are carried out and the drone is deployed to the customers location where the delivery is made. 
• The customer will be informed five minutes before the package arrives to go out and collet their delivery.

Uplift is targeted at the 200 million Nigerians in need of healthcare supplies as delay could mean death.

The customer profile for Uplift consists of the following geographic, demographic, and behavioral factors:
Geographics
● The targeted population is 200 million Nigerian citizens
● They are from the Nigeria region. 

Demographics
● Both male and female
● Ages from 1 day old and above.

Behavioral factors

● They are religious.

● They are tribally diverse with over 300 tribes speaking their native dialect.

● Most of them have access to a mobile phone. 

We focus on producing locally made UAVs to strengthen the health supply chain in remote parts of Nigeria through last-mile delivery of medicine. These locations are not easily accessible due to bad road infrastructures. 

We utilize fixed-wing UAV drones to deliver medical supplies in a fast, cost-effective, and sustainable way. These UAVs are battery-powered and are to be recharged from green energy sources like solar grids.

we are Nigerian citizens on our team who grew up and experienced these challenges firsthand. 

We are passionate and have worked hard to develop ourselves to a level where we are confident we have the skillset to create solutions to this problem. 

our business model is designed to involve community members in daily operations as drone handlers. it also incorporates solar kiosks which serve as micro drone landing stations for handlers to operate from hence bringing our drones closer to the doorstep of our customers and partnering with local smes.

we have also interviewed members of the community. like a community pharmacist who gave us an insight into the fact, that there were some lab tests that were carried out in other parts of the country because of a shortage of medical equipment which took days to be delivered by road transport. 

we are applying for this project Firstly, to develop our remote-controlled prototype into an autonomous UAV then we move on to carry out our proof of concept and market testing.

Unique selling proposition:
Faster deliveries at affordable prices using cargo drones.

competitive advantage:
we have a unique business model which involves members of the community in the daily operations as drone handlers. it also incorporates solar kiosks which serve as micro drone landing stations for handlers to operate from recharge and make battery swaps. These solar kiosks are to be positioned at strategic positions around the community hence bringing our drones closer to our customer's doorsteps.

We expect our solution to enable broader positive impacts from others in this space. Existing business models depend on stocking up pharmaceutical products and a highly capital-intensive base of operations. we curb this problem with our solar kiosks which are less capital and land-intensive.

we intend to train and partner with local SMEs via our solar kiosks. these drone handlers trained by us are also small business owners who render their services to us in exchange for subsidized rental prices of the solar kiosks.

Also, the ability to perform battery swaps at these locations extends the reach of our drone services compared to existing business models.

we intend to position ourselves as the leading provider of medical supplies via UAV drones to the 200 million Nigerian population in the next 5 years.

Our solution aligns with the following UN Sustainable Development Goals:

1. SDG 3 Good health and wellbeing
2. SDG 8 Decent work and economic growth
3. SDG 9 Industry, innovation, and infrastructure

Some KPIs used to measure our progress include:

• The number of jobs created by our organization
• The number of uninterrupted medical supplies achieved by our organization
• The number of inaccessible locations connected via our drone network.

• drone delivery of medical supplies.

• service delivery.

• drone flights

• increased accessibility to remote areas.
• quick deliveries.

• improved health care services

We utilize fixed-wing UAV drones to deliver medical supplies in a fast, cost-effective, and sustainable way. These UAVs are battery-powered and are to be recharged from green energy sources like solar grids.

Nigeria is a country with over 300 tribes speaking their native dialect. The three co-founders are from different tribes but have found unity in a similar idea/goal. All team members are assigned their roles based on competence and not ethnic, religious, or cultural bias. this is a core value for our organization. we also believe in diversity and that no one should be left behind which is evident in our business model. we also believe in creating an enabling and conducive working environment for all members of our organization, customers and patners.

Business model
At uplift, we run a B2B2C On-Demand Delivery Business Model. A customer makes an order via call, SMS, Whatsapp, Email, mobile app, or our online store. Our customer care representative receives this order and checks that payment has been made or proceeds to receive payment for the service. The staff then prepares the package for delivery and loads it onto the drone. All preflight procedures are carried out and the drone is deployed to the customer's location where the delivery is made. The customer will be informed five minutes before the package arrives to go out and collect his/her delivery. We primarily deliver blood products at an average delivery fee of $8.

Unique selling proposition:
Faster deliveries at affordable prices using cargo drones.
competitive advantage:
we have a unique business model which involves members of the community in the daily
operations as drone handlers. it also incorporates solar kiosks which serve as micro drone
landing stations for handlers to operate from recharge and make battery swaps. These solar
kiosks are to be positioned at strategic positions around the community hence bringing our
drones closer to our customer's doorsteps. 

firstly, we intend to fund our projects via grants throughout our seed-stage financing.

for our lunch financing, we will seek investments from angel investors and venture capitalists.

for our growth stage financing, we will seek investments from angel investors and larger venture capitalists in series(series A, series B...)

for our maturity stage financing, our company might decide to undertake an initial public offering(IPO)or go public.

sources of revenue

• sales of our drones
• drone delivery services
• solar kiosk rent

our company is at an early stage and although we have applied for various grants are yet to receive any funding.