In only a few short years, the Bay Area start-up AeroVect has made notable innovations in airport ground transportation support and safety. Early-stage venture capital funder Xfund was there at the company’s inception. 

AeroVect’s co-founders, Raymond Wang and Eugenio Donati, have spearheaded the development of a highly scalable self-driving navigational and logistical system aimed at improving the efficiency and usability of airport ground transport equipment (GSE). Built specifically for airside maneuvering, the AeroVect Driver can distinguish aircraft and their markings, as well as other GSE, with a high degree of accuracy. This capability makes it an essential component of airport safety and operations planning.

The AeroVect Driver system is capable of interfacing with a variety of types of equipment, regardless of manufacturer or brand. It offers 360-degree views of its environment using 10 high-sensitivity sensors. It uses 7 million light detection and ranging (LiDAR) points per second, allowing it to process environmental signals that distinguish the shape and surface qualities of the terrain it encounters with fine-point accuracy. It is designed to withstand obstacles, rough handling, and a range of extreme weather conditions. 

Moreover, its scalability is inherently integrated. While it currently operates effectively in mixed human-autonomous vehicle environments, it is readily adaptable to support the fully autonomous GSE environment anticipated in the future.

Two aviation fans aimed to improve an industry

In 2020, Raymond Wang, with a background in computer science, and Eugenio Donati, an economics graduate, were two recent alumni of Harvard University. Their connection stemmed from their joint efforts to establish a transportation club at the university. They founded AeroVect in a rented garage in the Bay Area, using an old tractor as the foundation for what would eventually evolve into a highly advanced electric autonomous vehicle.

Within three months, they were at a regional airport demonstrating how their design could streamline cargo transport and baggage handling. One year later, they harnessed their proprietary digital mapping program, AeroVect Explorer, to create digital replicas of significant airports. Subsequently, they traveled to Las Vegas to showcase a vehicle at the International GSE Expo.

Fast-forward to 2022, and their systems were in use at airports in San Francisco and Atlanta. Near the end of the year, AeroVect announced that it had moved into partnerships that included Delta Air Lines and Dubai International Airport. 

Based on both Wang’s and Donati’s love of aviation, the AeroVect team builds specifically for the airport space, taking time and care to do extensive on-site testing with airport partners. From the beginning, their goal was to put their AutoVect Driver on cargo and baggage tractor systems in real-world handling environments.

This experience has given the company an enormous amount of actionable data going forward. Consequently, it has led to ongoing enhancements in autonomy software, furthering the expansion and refinement of its capabilities in handling complex situations and diverse terrains.

Xfund and Harvard support founders together

Xfund’s leaders attribute much of the fund’s success to an emphasis on engaging with lateral thinkers and unconventional founders. This approach is integral to the fund’s operations. In fact, Xfund served as the first investor in many of the companies that have become part of its portfolio during its decade of operation. The fund frequently extends its support by reinvesting in these companies as they progress and expand.

“When we first met Raymond and Eugenio,” said Patrick Chung, Managing General Partner of Xfund, “we knew we had to find a way to work with them. We were honored to be AeroVect’s first investor, and have participated in every financing in the company’s life. This is the leader in autonomous ground transportation equipment.”

Part of the reason behind Xfund’s success is that its leadership realized from the beginning the benefits of a long-standing close relationship with Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Early in Xfund’s development, SEAS provided crucial non-financial support. Successive SEAS deans have also prioritized the relationship and have served on Xfund’s advisory board. Meanwhile, Xfund has kept up a steady stream of outreach programs for Harvard students and faculty. 

Xfund used these talents and connections to identify Wang and Donati early on. The two entrepreneurs chose to collaborate with Xfund due to its proven track record as a funding partner that could serve as a thought and development collaborator. They sought a partner who could deeply understand their objectives and offer substantial guidance as their company expanded. The choice of investor, said Donati, “makes a night-and-day difference.”

Other Harvard-born projects that later turned into successful Xfund investments include live-stream TV provider Philo, business-to-business market research firm NewtonX, and Kensho Technologies, which garnered significant attention in 2018 when it was acquired by S&P Global in the largest acquisition of an AI company up to that time.

Transformative solutions for urgent problems

To construct an AeroVect Driver system, Wang and Donati use sensors, devices, and cameras already available on the market, making their system vehicle-agnostic. It works, as Wang has observed, on any vehicle with wheels, acceleration, and brakes.

With the associated AeroVect Explorer custom mapping kit, the company offers the largest proprietary set of airside driving data available anywhere to date. The Explorer has enabled AeroVect to create its digitized airport replicas within hours. 

AeroVect’s systems address several serious—and growing—problems that major airports experience. The ability of precision-focused autonomous vehicles to operate on the tarmac, even in dangerous weather, lowers the risk of human-involved accidents and equipment damage while increasing overall safety for human workers. 

AeroVect also works to fill in gaps in the labor force. This is a perennial issue for airports as they continue to be plagued by low rates of retention and increased staff burnout. This lack of human workers has resulted in major customer service snafus, with higher rates of lost and mishandled bags. 

In addition to these immediate problems, AeroVect’s team believes their systems offer the potential for reducing airports’ environmental footprints. Future expansion of their business model could see AeroVect systems used in a variety of ground transport vehicles. Because airplane engines run with less efficiency the closer they are to the ground, an AeroVect tow vehicle could help lower the amount of fuel an airplane would typically burn taxiing down the runway.

As Wang recently noted, AeroVect’s fundamental success stems from the realization that uniting individuals enthusiastic about aviation with those passionate about autonomous vehicles would yield precisely this kind of groundbreaking product.