Azur Drones Investment Continues: Company Raises €8 Million to Accelerate Development
by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby
Following a year marked by steady growth in 2021, drone-in-a-box solutions leader Azur Drones has announced that it has secured nearly €8 million in funding to support its development in 2022. This new round of fundraising brings Azur Drones’ total raised since 2016 to roughly €38 million, and should enable the company to consolidate its leadership.
Azur Drones’ Skeyetech solution, originally designed for surveillance applications, is increasingly requested by industrials to conduct various other applications to support their operations. The drone-in-a-box solution has been deployed for over 2 years on critical sites of large industrial companies including TotalEnergies, Orano, Port of Dunkerque, Oiltanking and major players in the chemical industry. With over 20,000 autonomous flights and nearly 200 daily users, Skeyetech technology is now proven on a global scale.
Azur Drones Investment for Development and New Applications
Azur Drones is currently diversifying the applications of its Skeyetech solution in order to meet new customer needs. Last year, the company’s R&D teams developed a new photogrammetry functionality for a leader in the mining sector, as well as the first autonomous aerial solution for radioactivity detection. This solution, named Skeyetech-DIZI, is a worldwide exclusivity developed alongside Avnir Energy and has been rewarded at the end of 2021 at the World Nuclear Exhibition Awards.
The company seeks to continue this diversification going forward in 2022 with the launch of new solutions dedicated to industrial inspection and gas detection and quantification that will benefit the industrial, energy and port sectors.
Azur Drones has already deployed Skeyetech systems in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and intends to continue its international deployments due to new regulatory authorizations currently being obtained.
Growth is expected to be driven this year by structuring contracts put in place at the end of 2021, including s framework agreement with TotalEnergies and s distribution contract for 24 countries signed with the security leader G4S.
The recently acquired Azur Drones investment will also position the company to structure itself in accordance with the expected increase in deployments. Including 15 new hires last year, Azur Drones has over 65 employees across its locations in Bordeaux-Mérignac (company headquarters, R&D and production center), Paris and Dubai. The company will continue to recruit to expand its sales, R&D, support and operations teams in order to support its goals for 2022.
Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.
Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.
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