Dedrone Looks To Capture U.S. Anti-Drone Market

The anti-drone sector in the U.S. is undoubtedly growing rapidly – from the latest “anti-drone rifle by Batelle Innovations to the Orwellian-sounding “anti-drone death ray” Anti–AUV Defense System.

In fact, the sector is starting to attract attention from startups “across the Pond” who see the American anti-drone business-scape as the next tech frontier.

German drone-mitigation firm Dedrone, recently told DC Inno that the nascent firm is strongly considering relocating from its home base in Kassel to a new American location (likely near DC).

“2016 will be really important in terms of [anti-drone] industry acceptance,” co-founder Jörg Lamprecht told DC Inno, adding that the world was “just one major incident away from a huge, huge impact for the industry and global drone protection as a whole.”

Dedrone offers clients a multi-sensor, ground-based solution that detects and identifies drones via video and audio sensors and “based on multiple parameters such as noise, shape, and movement patterns, it provides the industry’s most reliable detection of all types of drones,” a company press release states.

Dedrone’s primary product, DroneTracker, is equipped with an industrial standard HD camera and audio sensors that interact with a cloud-computing, “drone DNA” database which collects and cross-references sound signatures from several drone models and updates automatically as new models are entered.

“Depending on the model of the drone detected within the parameters, a client will know what sort of mission that the perpetrator hopes to accomplish,” states DC Inno writer Chris Bing. “If, for example, a larger drone capable of package delivery/drop-off is detected, then a client can react to the alert differently than if this hypothetical drone is small in nature; and is likely commissioned for surveillance efforts.”

“Once detected, Dedrone technology allows prisons and other facilities to react quickly, gathering contraband, locking down jail cells, and looking for pilots close by,” Lamprecht said. “The system not only provides real time video of the incident, but records the threat for video evidence.”

And, Dedrone’s success is attracting the attention of the VC community. Last year, the company raised $2.9 million in start-up funding, including venture capital investor Target Partners and successful security entrepreneur Tom Noonan (Internet Security Systems, JouleX).