Instead, the Waterloo alum was thinking about the places planes rarely reach: remote Northern communities, isolated regions and areas where infrastructure is limited or unreliable. “Our mission has always been to make transportation more accessible to the world’s hardest to reach places,” says Wang, co-founder and COO of Ribbit. Founded in Waterloo, Ribbit is developing pilotless, fixed-wing aircraft designed for what's known as “dual-use” applications — operating across both defence and civilian contexts. “There's a lot of hype in autonomous systems,” he says, “but what sets Ribbit apart is our ability to stay grounded and focus on executing really well.” “Canada has a very strong set of technical expertise in robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems,” he says.