Aerodyne, the Malaysian drone solutions provider, has signed an agreement with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of Private Sector (ICD), the company announced on Wednesday. It opens the door for Aerodyne to promote unmanned aerial system technology in ICD member countries.
The private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) currently comprises 57 countries across the Middle East and Africa. The MoU was sealed by ICD’s chief executive Ayman Sejiny and Aerodyne’s founder and CEO Kamarul A. Muhamed.
Muhamed said that Aerodyne already collaborates with a few countries in the fight against COVID-19 and hopes to expand this initiative to other countries with support from ICD. The firm assisted the Malaysian authorities in enforcing physical distancing by providing real-time video streaming analytics of various locations.
“Aerodyne is also committed to helping bring in serious DroneTech players from ICD member countries to build a sustainable and vibrant drone ecosystem,” Muhamed added.
For ICD’s Sejiny, large-scale data capture and analytics provided through drones has the potential to benefit its member countries, especially in monitoring hard-to-reach populations. “The drone technology provided by Aerodyne can be deployed immediately to help governments in the battle against COVID-19, as a quick solution to reach the affected areas in a timely manner,” Sejiny said.
The partnership follows Aerodyne’s strategic investment in FEDS Group Holdings, a drone player in the Middle East, last April. Earlier in February, Aerodyne also raised funds to push its expansion to China, India, and Japan.
Founded in 2014, Aerodyne operates in the unmanned aerial vehicle services sector, using AI for large-scale data capture and analytics. It has completed over 78,500 flight operations in 25 countries, inspected more than 285,500 assets, and surveyed at least 75,000 km of power infrastructure, according to company data.