Tech: Mobilicom extends deal with multinational drone customer, closes the week on a high

Wireless communications provider Mobilicom (ASX:MOB) has finished the week with some good news, announcing a $240,000 contract extension with an un-named customer.

Mobilicom said the extra revenues would be received as an addition to the initial $2m contract, and the company “expects additional orders in due course”.

Shares in MOB ripped higher at the opening bell to briefly double up, before the stock eased back to a gain of around 40 per cent heading into midday trade.

While not naming the customer directly, Mobilicom described it as a multinational drone supplier with turnover of more than $3.6bn, and operations serving defence, homeland security and large corporations.

The deal extension is a development phase between the two companies, where Mobilicom built two prototype versions of its Ground Controller Station (GCS) platform.

The technology was then embedded into the customers drone’s and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), where it passed the relevant testing protocols.

“Commercial manufacturing of the solution is now commencing, and Mobilicom expects to make its first commercial batch delivery in Q3 (September quarter),” the company said.

In addition, Mobilicom said the customer now intends to roll out the GCS solution across its global network of drones and UAVs. And with further orders expected, CEO Oren Elkayam said the company was now preparing for “high volume production”.

Elkayam said the opportunity to establish proof of concept in a commercial capacity had “defined our solution as its building block for all future small UAV and drone projects, and demonstrates our capacity to meet the high specification needs of our clients”.

In other ASX tech news today:

Engineering tech company Structural Monitoring Systems (ASX:SMS) provided an update on its full-year FY20 trading results, where the company said it navigated “historically unprecedented global headwinds and operational adversity” to book annual sales of $18.961m — a gain of 10.1 per cent.

The company also said the latest round of testing for its CVM technology platform — a sensor technology that can detect cracks on planes — would begin in the next month, as it worked towards the receipt of validation approval from the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).