“From Lady Gaga using hundreds of Intel Corp. (ticker: INTC) Shooting Star drones during the Super Bowl halftime to Amazon.com’s (AMZN) patent for its blimp-like airborne flying center to help drones quickly deliver packages, there are plenty of reasons unmanned aerial vehicles are going mainstream. “Right now, the drone industry is going through some big changes,” says Ian Smith, host of the Commercial Drones FM podcast who also works in business development at DroneDeploy in San Francisco. “Many companies who previously focused mainly on recreational and hobby drones are pivoting to the commercial market after facing extreme pressure from the global drone market share leader [China’s] DJI.”
What else to consider. The PureFunds Drone Economy Strategy exchange-traded fund (IFLY), which launched in March 2016, focuses on the commercial drone market and includes companies such as AeroVironment (AVAV), French-based Parrot, Boeing, GoPro and Ambarella (AMBA). More than half of the portfolio is focused on aerospace and defense industry within the U.S. It carries an expense ratio of 0.75 percent and has $9.32 million in assets.
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Alan is serial entrepreneur, active angel investor, and a drone enthusiast. He co-founded DRONELIFE.com to address the emerging commercial market for drones and drone technology. Prior to DRONELIFE.com, Alan co-founded Where.com, ThinkingScreen Media, and Nurse.com. Recently, Alan has co-founded Crowditz.com, a leader in Equity Crowdfunding Data, Analytics, and Insights. Alan can be reached at alan(at)dronelife.com