Image credits: Unifly
Antwerp-based Unifly, an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system provider, announced on Tuesday that it has secured €10M in funding from Terra Drone Corporation and Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development (JOIN).
This investment marks JOIN’s first investment in the drone industry. Through this investment, JOIN and Terra Drone intend to support the development of the UTM system, which enables safe and efficient drone and aircraft flight management.
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The Belgian company will use the proceeds to continue product development and solidify its position in the UTM system market.
Andres Van Swalm, co-founder of Unifly, says, “The investment of Terra Drone and JOIN strengthens Unifly’s position as the sustainable UTM partner for the future. Unifly is here to stay– we are very happy to announce our new shareholders and continue with existing shareholders. This investment enables us to continue to build on the success of Unifly and pursue our vision of enabling autonomous aviation.”
Unifly: What you need to know
Founded in 2015 by Air Traffic Management and Drone experts, Unifly connects supervisors with drone pilots to safely integrate drones into the airspace.
By automating drone traffic management, and integrating manned and unmanned aviation systems, the company’s platform will enable aviation authorities to be prepared for the exponential growth of air traffic.
Currently, the national Air Navigation Service Providers of Belgium, Canada, and Germany, among others, are using Unifly’s platform to manage drone traffic in their airspace in an optimised and sustainable way.
Partnerships
Last year, NAV CANADA signed an agreement with Unifly to support flight authorisations as part of the nationwide UTM system. The system, with an intuitive user interface, will enable Canadian drone pilots to access the web and mobile applications to identify safe and legal airspace, plan flights, and manage operations, pilots, and a fleet of drones.
Spanish ANSP Enaire awarded a contract for an automated and digital drone management platform (U-Space) to Indra in partnership with Unifly and Airbus, with the objective to go live with a U-Space compliant system in 2023.
Additionally, Port of Antwerp has developed and launched a UTM platform together with Unifly to digitalise and automate requests for drone flights by operators.
Investors
Terra Drone is a drone and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) technology company, providing drone hardware and cloud-based software for survey and inspection, such as Terra Lidar, and thickness measurement by ultrasonic NDT.
Toru Tokushige, CEO of Terra Drone, says, “Our airspace is going to get more crowded than ever. There’s an urgent need for a global traffic management solution to enable safe and efficient drone and UAM operations. Terra Drone aims to be the leading player building the digital infrastructure in the sky together with Unifly.”
JOIN is a Japanese government-private-sponsored infrastructure investment fund company. JOIN’s aim is to encourage Japanese companies to utilise their knowledge, technology, and experience in the field of infrastructure to expand overseas.
Tatsuhiko Takesada, President & CEO at JOIN, says, “Through its equity participation in Unifly, JOIN expects to contribute to the realisation of safe and secure aircraft, airport and port operations, and enhancement of drone operation management. JOIN aims to support the expansion of the use of drones in a wide range of fields and further build its growth in the drone industry.”
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