AgEagle Soars into Drone Delivery Manufacturing Deal

Agricultural drone company AgEagle Aerial Systems has landed a two-year contract manufacturing agreement with Chicago drone delivery startup Valqari, LLC .

The deal will allow AgEagle to produce Valqari’s recently released Drone Delivery Station – a landing solution with six separate storage units to accommodate multiple deliveries or pickups.

A recent Valqari press release described the platform as another addition to a product roster that “solves the last-inch logistics problem with its patented universal drone delivery infrastructure.”

Built to Valqari’s patented design specifications, AgEagle will manufacture and assemble the Drone Delivery Stations in its new manufacturing and assembly facility in Wichita, Kansas. In addition, AgEagle made an equity investment in Valqari in association with its current early stage funding round.

“The excitement surrounding the use of commercial drones for package delivery is giving rise to an entire new ecosystem being built to support the industry,” AgEagle CEO Michael Drozd said.

“Effective solutions for ground support, like Valqari’s Drone Delivery Station, will prove to be a vital, fundamental component of this new ecosystem, helping to ensure the promising potential of mainstream drone package delivery is fully realized. We are very pleased to be teaming with Valqari and look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship between our companies.”

The station is described as a “universal, standardized, safe and secure drone landing station that protects people, property and packages.”

At 7.5-feet in height, the Drone Delivery Station offers a landing station that also maintains a digital chain of custody throughout the entire delivery process to give users “peace of mind knowing their packages are secure until retrieved.”

“We based our decision to partner with AgEagle on three primary factors. One, we were looking for a highly adaptive manufacturing partner that has expertise in drone and drone-related manufacturing,” Valqari CEO Ryan Walsh said.

“AgEagle is based in the United States which ensures there will not be the same concerns we are seeing with other areas of international manufacturing for the North American drone market. Finally, Valqari and AgEagle are very complementary so we sought a partnership with which we can grow as the market evolves and matures. We also greatly appreciate their vote of confidence in Valqari’s long term vision and value proposition by becoming one of our trusted new stockholders.”

In 2019, AgEagle announced a merger with EnerJex Resources in a stock trade. Founded in 2015, AgEagle was named one of DroneLife’s “7 Best Agriculture Drones” in 2017 for its track record in providing precision ag UAV solutions.