Aerodyne Group, a Malaysian company providing drone-based enterprise solutions, has secured additional investment in a round co-led by Chinese VC firm North Summit Capital. India-based investment company Arc Ventures and Japan’s Leave a Nest have also backed Aerodyne to help accelerate the startup’s expansion in China, India, and Japan.
Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.
“We firmly believe that together, we will be able to make the next technological leap and be well-positioned to capitalize on the growth of China, India, and Japan, whose combined 2030 GDP forecast stands at USD 117.7 trillion,” said Kamarul A Muhamad, founder and group CEO at Aerodyne.
In China, Aerodyne said the partnership with North Summit Capital will help it deepen its capabilities in AI, machine learning, cloud computing, data technology, and digital transformation.
Its partnership with Arc Ventures, meanwhile, will support the company’s growth requirements in India’s diverse market, which requires deep domain knowledge.
Leave a Nest, which connects startups, research institutes, and businesses, will also help strengthen Aerodyne’s position in Japan.
Last year, the company raised USD 30 million in a round led by Intervest and Kejora Ventures. Other investors included VentureTech, Gobi Partners, and 500 Startups. The five-year-old company said it will use the funds to hire talent globally and continue to expand into global markets such as Japan, the US, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.
Founded in 2014, Aerodyne operates in the unmanned aerial vehicle services sector in 25 countries, using AI for large-scale data capture and analytics. To date, it says it has completed over 78,500 flight operations, inspected more than 285,500 assets, and surveyed above 75,000 km of power infrastructure.
This article first appeared in Tech in Asia.