Professional Drone Leader Delair-Tech Announces US Subsidiary Plans, $14.5 Million in New Funding

PARIS, March 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Delair-Tech has unveiled its acceleration strategy to extend its leadership position in the professional drone market. With $14.5 million in fundraising, Delair-Tech is continuing its international expansion (opening two subsidiaries - one in the United States, another in Australia), strengthening its capacity for the design and production of professional industrial drones and opening Delair-Services, which will offer "all inclusive" aerial imaging solutions to major industrial groups.  

"By creating Delair-Services, we are outreaching to clients who wish to take advantage of this booming technology to improve the management of their business on a daily basis. Delair-Services provides turnkey results, focused on strategic issues and produced by experts, preventing the need for our clients to create an internal drone system", explains Michaël de Lagarde, CEO of Delair-Tech.

$14.5 million in fundraising 

Delair-Tech is announcing the fundraising of $14.5 million, primarily from the investment company Andromède, which now becomes the company's largest investor. BPI (Banque Publique d'Investissement) has also granted a loan to Delair-Tech to support its acceleration strategy.

"On 11th March 2011, when we created our start-up, we were just four determined engineers. Exactly five years later, almost 50 people have joined us in this adventure, and with them, their investment, and their passion, we are a company achieving incredible growth and now present in over thirty different countries. We are very proud of our progress, but this is only the beginning; we still have everything to achieve. The world is our playing field and we want to become the market leader in geo-referenced data. As such, 2016 will be a pivotal year for us to develop these ambitions," said Michaël Lagarde, CEO of Delair-Tech.   

With this investment, Delair-Tech now has the means to conduct its 2016 strategic development plan: 

Accelerating International Development: 

Already present in some thirty countries, Delair-Tech is seeking to accelerate its global expansion significantly in 2016 in order to operate on all five continents and to develop local service relationships with clients, especially major accounts abroad. Delair-Tech is already present in the Australian market with a subsidiary created in January 2016. Another subsidiary is expected to be opened in the US in the second half of 2016 and plans for a Chinese subsidiary are also underway.

Strengthening "decision support" solutions for aerial imagery, with the launch of Delair-Services: 

Delair-Tech intends to focus on the development of future applications with innovative tools and services dedicated to the analysis of aerial images and data processing.

Since certification in 2012, Delair-Tech drones have been authorised to fly fully automatically and out-of-sight. Thus clients have been able to embark on large-scale projects, enabling them to gain unique experience and insight. Large industrial groups which rely on Delair-Tech include rail infrastructures, electrics, petroleum, highways, mining, and agriculture.

Based on this cumulative experience, Delair-Tech has developed specific expertise for each type of business, and has designed simple and flexible solutions enabling the acquisition, manipulation and analysis of data by combining multiple sources of geographic information from its sensors, alongside other systems developed by the aeronautics and aerospace industries.

Thus Delair-Tech is now able to offer a coherent and comprehensive range, covering the entire value chain, from acquisition to data processing via custom formatting by field and customer expectations. This desire to combine the best high-tech drones with the power of "Big Data," creating an all-in-one solution, is reflected in the launch of Delair-Services, a dedicated entity designed to bring turnkey support solutions to key decision makers.

Confirming its position as a technological pioneer with high-end, high performance products designed for professionals: 

Delair-Tech aims to maintain its position as a technology leader with the design and manufacturing of high added value products at its workshop in Toulouse, the birthplace of the aeronautical and aerospace sectors.

Delair-Tech will continue developing increasingly safer drones which are more reliable, more durable and more oriented towards the quality of measured data.

The Toulouse ecosystem, where Delair-Tech is based, is at the forefront of satellite data processing which allows innovative solutions to be developed for the acquisition, processing and global provision of geo-referenced data, meeting the needs and challenges of industrial clients.

Reducing the use of herbicides and fertilisers, protecting the integrity of pipelines, avoiding blackouts, and reducing road-traffic accidents are all challenges which the directors of Delair-Tech wish to tackle alongside their clients.

About Delair-Tech 

Delair-Tech, a global leader in professional drones, supports corporate decision-making with its long-range drones and unique processing of their images. Founded in 2011 by four engineers, the Toulouse start-up provides unrivalled professional data, collected and analysed by the only drones in the world which are certified for flight operations out of the sight of the pilot. Delair-Tech offers an integrated data processing solution to support decision-making in all sectors of the industry. Delair-Tech has over 50 employees and is already present in some thirty countries. The start-up is involved in many fields such as agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and construction.

SOURCE Delair-Tech