Azur Drones, a French developer of drone-in-a-box solutions, has raised almost €8 million with a French private investor for further development, and to consolidate its leadership, in 2022.
The company plans to expand the applications of its Skeyetech drone-in-a-box solution. Skeyetech was originally developed for surveillance but is increasingly used by industry. It has been used for more than two years on critical sites of large industrial companies such as TotalEnergies, Orano, Port of Dunkerque, Oiltanking and major players in the chemical industry. With more than 20,000 autonomous flights and nearly 200 daily users, Skeyetech technology is now considered mature.
The expanded applications will meet new customer needs, and will include solutions dedicated to industrial inspection and gas detection and quantification. In 2021, Azur research teams developed a new photogrammetry functionality for a major player in the mining sector, and in collaboration with Avnir Energy, the first autonomous aerial solution for radioactivity detection, SkeyetechDIZI.
Azur also plans to accelerate international growth. As well as in France, its systems are currently deployed in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It is currently working to obtain new regulatory authorisations. Growth will be driven by structuring contracts put in place at the end of 2021, including a framework agreement with TotalEnergies and a distribution contract for 24 countries signed with security leader G4S.
Azur will also continue to structure itself to cope with the expected increase in deployments. It has more than 65 employees and will expand its sales, R&D, support and operations teams in 2022
Azur has raised nearly €38 million since 2016.
