The following is a press release from Aerodyne.

Leading UAV Service Provider Aerodyne are pleased to announce today that they have partnered with Drone Fund in an investment deal which will consolidate their position in the Japanese market, as well as giving them access to Drone Fund’s stable of innovative drone-related start-ups and established technology partners.

The investment is one of the most significant that Drone Fund has made to date and brings together the global reach and experience of Aerodyne with the finest innovators and technology partners in the burgeoning Japanese drone industry.

Aerodyne’s remarkable growth has been fuelled by their development and extensive implementation of artificial intelligence (AI). Access to the rapidly expanding Japanese domestic market for drone enterprise solutions and partnership with Drone Fund is an important step on the road towards achieving other long-term technology goals.

The development of fully-autonomous UAV and BVLOS technology is already front and centre of Aerodyne’s development roadmap, with live projects around the world incorporating nested drones, 5G connectivity and automated surveillance. They are now ready to embrace and help to shape the future of another exciting UAV application – Air Mobility.

A report published by NASA in October 2018¹ suggested a potential market size of $500 billion by 2035. Aerodyne are determined to leverage their industry knowledge, scale, capability and technical partnerships to capture a share of that market and help shape the trajectory of its implementation.

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“We are thrilled and honoured to have Drone Fund as our investor. Aerodyne is currently “blitz-scaling” our way around the world and the collective experience, network and wisdom from all our stakeholders will be a paramount contributor to our ongoing success. 

Japan is an interesting and significant market for us and we look forward to working very closely with Drone Fund to make our vision a reality”

Kamarul A, Aerodyne CEO

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“Drone Fund are very excited by our new alliance with capital involvement in Aerodyne. We believe that the utilisation and application of automated technologies is increasingly being realised, and the speed of its implementation is accelerating exponentially. 

This partnership with Aerodyne is important for the drone start-ups we have invested in to make further inroads into the growing Asian market and beyond. Aerodyne is a truly a leading industry solution provider with DaaS (Drone as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions that leverage the power of AI”

Mr. Ohmae, Executive Board Member Drone Fund

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About Aerodyne

Aerodyne operate on an unprecedented level in the UAV services sector. To date they have completed over 48,000 flight operations, inspected more than 250,000 assets and surveyed in excess of 60,000km of power infrastructure.

Aerodyne have a full-time staff of over 260 including pilots, engineers, software developers and industry experts. They have a presence in 23 countries around the world, with plans to continue their expansion into a variety of territories and verticals during 2019 and beyond.

Aerodyne’s AI-Driven Enterprise Solutions, myPRISM and Vertikaliti are already deployed on major projects within Oil & Gas, Power, Telecoms, Renewables, Construction, Agriculture, Infrastructure and beyond. Large enterprises around the world are benefitting from optimised management of critical assets and infrastructure, improved project situational awareness and sophisticated geospatial intelligence, enabling them to fully embrace digital transformation.

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About Drone Fund

Drone Fund (Official Name: Chiba Dojo Drone Fund II Investment Limited Partnership) was established in Tokyo, Japan in July 2018 under the direction of renowned Angel Investor and Drone Evangelist Kotaro Chiba. Its mission statement is to create a “Drone-based Society” where autonomous and AI-driven technology is a fundamental part of everyday life, from the individual to the industrial.

To date the fund has raised over ¥3,700,000,000 (approx $33 million) and invested in over 20 companies.

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 a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.
Email Miriam
TWITTER:@spaldingbarker

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