Malaysian drone solutions provider Aerodyne Group (Aerodyne) publicly announced today that it has raised US$30 million as part of its latest bridging round, as a capital infusion for its drone services.
One of Aerodyne’s long-time clients, PETRONAS, via its corporate venture capital arm, PETRONAS Ventures, led the funding round. The capital injection also included a follow-on investment by Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP), who initially invested in Aerodyne back in 2020.
KWAP is an investment management company leading the pension scheme for Malaysia’s public employees.
Based on a press release, Aerodyne intends to use the funds to support its further expansion into European, African, Latin American, and South Asian territories.
To add, it will make strategic investments into technology acquisitions to further deepen its technology edge and launch Aerodyne’s entry into the advanced air mobility space.
Funding for scaling
Having started as a drone division of a media company in 2006, Aerodyne Group is now easily one of the biggest names in dronetech, not just in Malaysia but across the globe too.
Officially founded in 2014, Aerodyne is a DT3 (Drone Tech, Data Tech, and Digital Transformation) drone-based enterprise solutions provider.
The group claims to be a pioneer in the use of AI as an enabling technology for large-scale data operations, analytics, and process optimisation.
Aerodyne’s flagship precision agriculture solution is powered by in-house developed AI capabilities. It has more than 300,000 secured effective hectarages for major industry players in Malaysia.
Part of the funds will be utilised to support Aerodyne’s agriculture scaling efforts and bring this solution to Indonesia and India.
Another large-scale commercialisation plan for Aerodyne’s advanced air mobility solution is also currently underway.
This solution includes the use of heavy lifter drones, which can replace the more costly traditional methods and is well-suited for oil and gas operations such as shore-to-platform and platform-to-platform deliveries.
The advanced air mobility solution also accelerates large logistic operations such as the delivery of medical supplies in rural areas. As a result, urban air mobility can act as a fast and cost-effective mode of transportation in near future.
Making waves in its growth
Aerodyne has been making waves in its growth over recent years. It’s no wonder Drone Industry Insights ranked the Malaysia-based company first in the world in its Drone Service Provider Ranking 2021.
According to current data available, Aerodyne employs over 1,000 drone professionals to operate on an unprecedented level in the UAS services sector.
It has managed over 560K infrastructure assets with 458K flight operations and surveyed over 380K kilometres of power infrastructure across 35 countries globally.
During the dangerous December flood crisis in 2021, Aerodyne leapt into action to assist in search and rescue efforts.
Just weeks after that, Aerodyne announced the inking of a strategic partnership with Norway-based dronetech company, Astralution, to drive growth.
A Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) was then signed on April 2022 between Aerodyne Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of Aerodyne PETRONAS Technology Ventures.
It was meant to explore opportunities for deployment and commercialisation of drone-based solutions, as well as enabling remote and autonomous operations through the expansion of robotics and digitalisation.
“We’re happy to have raised US$30 million through this bridging round, which will allow us to scale even further globally, especially supported by our new technology developments,” said Kamarul A Muhamed, Aerodyne’s founder and Group CEO.
Kamarul added that Aerodyne also has plans to raise further capital in near future, amounting to US$100 million to US$200 million, to bring Aerodyne Group to the next stage of its growth.
Featured Image Credit: Aerodyne Group
