‘Uber for Drones’ soars to new heights with $4.2 million funding round

Ellerston Capital backs ‘Uber for Drones’ technology company Aerologix

Australian drone technology company Aerologix, has completed a $4.2 million funding round led by Ellerston Capital and Lindsay Phillips’ Nightingale Partners.

The Sydney-based business will use the capital to invest in additional research and development, bolstering its commercial team and supporting the company’s expansion internationally.

“We’re thrilled to be backed by Ellerston Capital and to receive a second round of support from Nightingale.,”Aerologix co-founder Tom Caska says., “It’s further validation of our vision and commercial viability. We’re excited to expand here at home and offshore in Asia and Europe in the near future.”

Caska, a former Qantas pilot, founded the company in 2019 with former technology consultant Rakesh Routhu, throwing a career lifelines to many airline pilots who were stood down or had their flying hours reduced due to the pandemic.

In the past year alone, its network of pilots has grown from 500 to more than 10,000 across Australia.

In full flight

Dubbed the “Uber for drones”, the platform connects drone pilots with enterprises or individuals that need drone imaging.

Capabilities include high quality aerial panoramas, video tours of properties and detailed analytics of large-scale construction projects. The platform aims to improve sustainability and efficiency for clients and provide a seamless flight experience for the pilot.

Aerologix proved a crucial tool for insurance companies that used the on-demand service to quickly assess damage and assist with search and rescue efforts during the east coast floods.

Future projects on the radar include inspecting wind farms and solar panels for a large renewable energy generator – A task that’s currently carried out on foot at ground level.

With sustainability being such a hot button topic at the moment and top of mind for many companies, Aerologix is perfectly poised to take a chunk of that market, offering an efficient, low carbon solution for tasks and circumstances that once required the use of aircraft.

“Aerologix benefits from being a key technology platform that enables drone pilots to complete complex data captures for organisations that have significant infrastructure,” Ellerston’s Stuart Robertson says.

Goldman Sachs estimates the market value of the drone industry to be $US100 billion, with the majority of that stake $US70 billion coming from the defense, followed by the consumer sector valued at $US17 billion and commercial and civil making up the remaining $US13 billion.

It’s a sizeable market to chase after and not surprising that drone technology has seen a surge of investment in the last few years. One such investment came from Quickstep Holdings (ASX:QHL) that took a cornerstone investment in Carbonix, an Australian maker of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) led by America’s Cup veteran Dario Velenzas.

The company initially specialised in high-end composite structures producing world championship winning racing sailboats but Dario realized the tech could apply to flying boats, then flying sensor platforms and finally drones.

Elsight (ASX:ELS) is a communications business that has adapted its HALO connectivity technology onto UAVs. Its bonding technology incorporates both software and hardware elements to deliver extremely reliable, secure, high bandwidth, real-time connectivity – even in the most challenging areas for stationary, portable, or actively mobile situational requirements.

This article was developed in collaboration with Aerologix, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.