The publisher providing access to a collaborative platform for piloting autonomous and connected drones for industry is raising €5m from Innovacom, Benjamin & Ariane de Rothschild and others. The company is targeting international deployment in the energy, logistics and oil and chemical industries.
Article CF NEWS BY RODOLPHE LANGLOIS Published on 15 Dec 2021 at 14:49
Since 2018, and its first round of financing, the challenge for Uavia has been to demonstrate the usefulness of its technology to industry (see below). According to the publisher, which provides a collaborative platform for piloting autonomous and connected drones, it has achieved its goal, since the Total group, as part of a collaborative programme, has validated its interest in facilitating and securing the deployment of drones in order to capture data on their industrial sites. Its new ambition is now to “supply the major system integrators, to continue to find new use cases and to hand over our technologies to them, who can scale up to deployments for major clients”, confides Pierre Vilpoux, President of Uavia for the past two years. In this context, Uavia is raising €5m and inviting Innovacom and Cattleya Finance, the investment holding company of Benjamin & Ariane de Rothschild, to join its capital. The existing shareholders, UI Investissement and Bpifrance, who participated in the fundraising process, are taking advantage of the opportunity to reinject cash.
Validated economic model
One of the first recognised uses of the software platform is its ability to carry out remote missions. Uavia, which works with six to seven drone manufacturers, thus facilitates the piloting of surveillance, maintenance, verification or crisis management missions. “We have validated our business model. As a technology provider, we are going to hire system integrators worldwide who will represent the technology on the markets,” explains the manager. Our technologies allow us to take measurements directly inside the drone using our on-board intelligence, and to have real-time visualisations, such as for the search for pollutants on industrial sites. Uavia wants to offer end-users, particularly large groups in the energy, logistics or oil and chemical industry sectors, a unified and secure interface, with all configuration and usage settings being made via the software interface. The company, which will increase its workforce from 23 to 40 next year, is facing a market player such as the Swiss company Autérion.
The stakeholders of the UAVIA operation
Target company: UAVIA
Buyer or Investor : INNOVACOM , UI INVESTISSEMENT (EX UI GESTION) , BPIFRANCE INVESTISSEMENT , PERSON(S) PHYSICAL , Benjamin de Rothschild , Ariane de Rothschild
Purchaser Corporate Lawyer : JOFFE & ASSOCIES
Company Corporate Lawyer : FIDAL , Anne Fréchette-Kerbrat
