Matternet and TransLogic, a Swisslog Healthcare company, announced on 29 October 2026 that TransLogic’s sales team will sell Matternet’s M3 drone-delivery system to hospitals in North America, according to Matternet’s release, distributed by GlobeNewswire. DroneDJ (Ishveena Singh) covered it on 10 November, 12 days later. The release says TransLogic’s automated transport systems are in more than 2,300 North American hospitals and that its global customer base exceeds 3,000. First-year work is targeted at hospital systems in California, Florida and Arizona. The release names no hospital and gives no price, order count or start date, and DroneLife noted that the partnership does not guarantee new customers or deployments.

How it is structured

The companies say the arrangement would link an in-hospital pneumatic tube station with satellite facilities outside the hospital in one automated network, which they describe as a first. In their example, a drone carries a lab specimen from a remote clinic to a central lab and the hospital’s tube system carries it on to its final destination. The cargo named is medications, lab specimens and urgent supplies. The release says the companies will explore having Swisslog’s field service organization install and maintain Matternet infrastructure; that is not agreed. No financial terms were disclosed.

The aircraft and its approval status

The partnership is built on the M3, which Matternet unveiled on 28 September 2026. Matternet says it carries up to 11 lb (5 kg), has a 10-mile (16 km) service radius and is stored and charged in an M3 Dock that can sit on a roof or at ground level, with commercial service targeted for the second half of 2027. Matternet says its earlier M2 is the only drone delivery system with both FAA Standard Type Certification and Production Certification, a company claim; DroneXL (Haye Kesteloo) reports that the M2 certificate was issued in September 2022. The M3 has no FAA type certificate: DroneXL reported on 29 October that the Federal Register held no airworthiness criteria for it, and Matternet’s release lists M3 development, certification and regulatory and local site approvals among its risks. DroneXL also reports that Matternet holds no Part 135 certificates of its own and that its US flights run under UPS Flight Forward and Ameriflight certificates; the release says Matternet operates directly or with partners such as UPS. Neither the release nor other sources say whether the M2 or the M3 would fly the first-year sites. DroneXL notes the FAA’s Part 108 rule for routine beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights was unsigned as of 29 October.

What was said

Cory Kwarta, chief executive of Swisslog Healthcare, said: “For years, hospitals have automated what happens inside their walls.” He added: “This partnership extends that automation to everything outside them.” Andreas Raptopoulos, founder and chief executive of Matternet, said: “End-to-end automation will define the future of hospital logistics.”

Matternet’s finances

Matternet’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026, filed on 19 August, reports revenue of $121,439 for the quarter and $255,564 for nine months, all from enterprise platform access, and a net loss of about $7.92 million for the quarter and $15.09 million for nine months. Cash was $23.1 million at 30 June. The filing states that substantial doubt exists about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year, and that two customers accounted for about 80% and 20% of nine-month revenue. The reverse merger closed on 22 May 2026, and the shares trade on the OTCQB under MTTN. The company says it has made more than 60,000 commercial flights across the US, Europe and the UK, including for WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina, since 2019, and that its drones cut urgent sample transport time by up to 90%; these are company claims.

Where accounts differ

The release, DroneLife and DroneXL date the announcement 29 October, while STAT Times and Unmanned Airspace carry it as announced on 30 October. DroneDJ describes the network as linking hospitals, labs, pharmacies and clinics, and the release says hospital facilities and satellite facilities. DroneXL describes Swisslog Healthcare as the hospital arm of KUKA; Lens did not verify the ownership chain further, and sources give the unit’s headcount as more than 1,000 and as about 2,200.

Sources and notes

Sources, read through summaries: Matternet’s release of 29 October 2026 on its investor site; DroneDJ (10 November); DroneLife (Miriam McNabb, 29 October and 20 October, and Ian McNabb, 29 September); DroneXL (Haye Kesteloo, 29 October and 28 September); STAT Times and Unmanned Airspace (30 October); and Matternet’s Form 10-Q on sec.gov, which Lens read directly for the financial figures. Lens found no statement from a hospital, the FAA or a regulator on the partnership and no healthcare trade-press coverage; Swisslog Healthcare’s own news page loaded empty.

Image: Princess Alexandra Hospital and its rooftop helipad, Brisbane, Australia, July 2019. Photo: Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped. Stand-in image of a hospital with a rooftop landing site; it is not a Matternet or Swisslog site and shows no drone.