Elsight’s Halo tech to fly high in Brazil with another key partnership

Elsight (ASX:ELS) has signed another key deal for its Halo connectivity platform in the commercial drone sector, earmarked to become a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Critical connectivity technology company Elsight (ASX:ELS) has signed a contract to supply its Halo technology to Brazilian company Speedbird Aero for the critical task of controlling its parcel delivery drones Beyond the Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS).

Speedbird has built UAVs capable of transporting and delivering packages for commercial, industrial, and healthcare uses.

Speedbird’s drones have received certification and waivers by ANAC, the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency, to operate with the Halo technology onboard.

Halo will provide Speedbird with a reliable, uninterrupted bonded connectivity solution for command-and-control (C2) redundancy certification, critical and secure data transmission.

The platform will provide a complete end-to-end link between the drone and all communication technologies associated with its field drone hub and control-centre.

Orders placed under new Elsight pricing model

The contract signature followed by the first commercial order of Halo has been placed by Speedbird to support their initial fleet of parcel delivery drones.

The order has a minimum value of US$72k with the potential to reach a value of ~US$520k during calendar year 2023, subject to expected follow-up orders, 57% of which will be annual recurring revenues.

Speedbird is the first customer to be offered Elsight’s innovative Halo-as-a-Service (HaaS) payment model, representing a shift from reliance on upfront hardware sales to a software and managed services-oriented model.

The HaaS payment model will enable Elsight to continue making revenue even once the hardware sale has been completed.

The new pricing is designed to better align Elsight’s business model with that of their customers, improve how it derives revenue and enhance long-term profitability.

The model reduces a customer’s up-front payment required for hardware, during their initial service launch, while moderately increasing their monthly recurring revenue payments, received by Elsight during the term of Halo usage.

Resilient, long-range communications

Speedbird founder and president Samuel Salomão said the company was looking forward to partnering with Elsight.

“Halo provides us with the ability to strongly grow our business by providing resilient, uninterrupted long-range communications for C&C between our drones and ground stations,” he said.

“Elsight is also providing us with a business model which meshes well with the business model we are currently offering our own customers, presenting us with another avenue for growth.”

Elsight CEO Yoav Amitai said the order from Speedbird continues to confirm the success of its design-win strategy, with Halo embedded as a critical component in drone design by manufacturers.

“We are delighted to have been chosen as a partner by Speedbird as they leverage Halo’s connectivity solution, ensuring complete connection confidence to their entire drone fleet for commercial deliveries,” Amitai said.

“Furthermore, the strong, lengthy partnership formed between Elsight and Speedbird are indicative of Elsight’s relations with numerous other Design Win partners, in all stages of their growth.

“Just as Speedbird has begun to rapidly expand and is expected to continue their growth exponentially, Elsight looks forward to similar orders with growing scale from additional partners, both large and small, in similar circumstances.”

Halo has signed key deals which will see its Halo technology as crucial componentry for delivery drones including with DroneUp, who is working with US shopping giant Walmart in the country’s first large-scale drone delivery program.

This article was developed in collaboration with Elsight, 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.