Norwegian quality assurance and risk management company DNV and Equinor Ventures (EV) which invests in early-stage and growth companies, are now part-owners of Scout Drone Inspection (ScoutDI).
ScoutDI, also based in Norway, has developed specialised drones and cloud-based data analysis services for confined spaces such as tanks. It has just successfully completed an NOK 27.5 million (€2.7 million) investment round, which involved DNV and EV with existing shareholders such as Investinor and CoFounder.
Using drones is gaining popularity for confined space inspections. It is safer, as it avoids the need for human access, and is faster, without the need for erecting scaffolding and climbing equipment, or filling a tank with water. ScoutDI drones do not need expert pilots and are equipped with advanced laser sensors to create a 3D map of the surroundings and estimate the drone’s position. All collected data is tagged with location information to make it easy to follow up with maintenance where necessary. ScoutDI’s drone system has been used for inspections with Equinor, DNV, Aker BP and Altera Infrastructure, among others.
‘This is an exciting company with global potential that has solutions that are important to our industry. We have followed the company over time and have great faith in both the technology and the team,’ says Lars Klevjer, head of early phase and implementation in Equinor Ventures.
Nicolai Husteli, CEO of Scout Drone Inspection says: ‘We are proud to have Equinor Ventures and DNV as owners of the company. With their expertise in regulations and requirements in the industry, as well as international orientation, both are very solid partners for us for the way forward. The fact that nine existing shareholders and four new private investors also choose to invest further in us is a very good sign.’
