Member Profile

Daniel is the founder and CEO of Vayu, Inc. Vayu designs and manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for medical aid to inaccessible areas. Vayu's Courier UAV has vertical take-off and landing, and is equipped with a protected 2.2kg cargo bay designed to carry spitum samples, pathogen kits, medicines, blood packs, and other vital goods. The Courier UAV can also be outfitted with a versatile accessory bay for aerial photography, surveying, and data collection.

As a medical student, Daniel thought that the use of UAVs for the transport of products should not only benefit first world consumers, when it is the 2+ billion people living in developing countries who will gain the most from it. UAVs can transport medical supplies and relief aid between healthcare centers and locations with unreliable or destroyed transportation infrastructure. After getting first hand accounts of healthcare facilities in low-and middle-income countries and consulting with experts in the field, he turned his vision into a reality by founding Vayu in May of 2014. 

Daniel worked as a journalist from roughly 2002 to 2009, covering conflict, economics, politics, humanitarian crises and environmental issues across sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. His publications include Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, Fortune, the Guardian, Economist and others.