Flytrex—a leading drone food delivery service that aims to “vastly expand” in Dallas-Fort Worth—has added a technology heavy hitter to its leadership team, appointing former Waze CEO and Google VP Noam Bardin as executive chairman of its board of directors.

The company said Bardin, who built Waze into a global navigation platform used by over 150 million users a month, brings “unparalleled expertise in rapidly scaling consumer-focused transportation technologies.”

The move comes just weeks after a major breakthrough for Israel-based Flytrex, which became one of just four drone delivery companies to receive FAA approval for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations in the U.S. (The others are Wing, Zipline, and Amazon.)

That FAA approval enables Flytrex to expand its service nationwide to the 37 largest metro areas in the U.S., “unlocking the ability to bring drone delivery to over 100 million people,” the company announced last month. 

Flytrex also recently announced that it’s now flying food from “dozens” of local and national restaurants in two North Texas cities, thanks to a new partnership with DoorDash. And it’s now collaborating with Wing to enable the two drone delivery companies to share airspace through autonomous flight coordination.

Seeing ‘an extraordinary inflection point’

A Flytrex delivery drone over Granbury, southwest of Fort Worth. [Photo: Flytrex]

“I believe we’re at an extraordinary inflection point in autonomous transportation,” Bardin. said in a statement. “We are finally at the convergence point of technology, regulation, and economics that is making the promise of autonomy a reality. Just as self-driving cars are rapidly scaling on the ground, drone delivery is beginning to scale in the air.”

“The technology has matured, the regulatory framework is in place, and the unit economics are finally starting to make sense,” he added. “This is especially true for food delivery, where speed is the difference between a hot or cold meal, and the current food delivery cost makes it a luxury product. Flytrex is the leading drone food delivery service and is poised to begin scaling across the major U.S. suburbs.”

In his new role, Bardin will focus on leading Flytrex’s transition from an R&D-focused company to a business operations-focused enterprise, the company said, eyeing an “aggressive infrastructure rollout and service scaling.”

Bardin will focus on navigating Flytrex as it evolves from proving its technology to building a sustainable, profitable business that serves millions of customers, the company added.

“Drone delivery brings together two of my passions—logistics innovation and creating consumer experiences people love,” Bardin said. “Working closely with the founders as an advisor for the past 10 months and experiencing the product firsthand reminded me so much of Waze’s early days—that same combination of breakthrough technology and a service that genuinely delights customers. That’s what convinced me to take on operational duties and help lead this transition from R&D pioneer to scaled operations.”

Led Waze from 2009 to 2021

Bardin previously served as CEO of Waze from 2009 to 2021, transforming the community-driven navigation app from a startup into a global phenomenon with hundreds of millions of monthly users. Under his leadership, Waze was acquired by Google in 2013. Following the acquisition, Bardin continued to lead Waze as a Google vice president, maintaining the brand’s innovative spirit while leveraging Google’s resources to expand its global reach, Flytrex said.