DELAIR announces the acquisition of SQUADRONE SYSTEM. Founded in 2014 in Grenoble, the company, with a workforce of 22 and estimated turnover of €2M in 2024, specialises in the design of multi-copter drones for complex use cases:
UAV swarming: through the TAMOS (Tactical Multi-Objectives Swarming UAVs) project of the Agence Innovation Défense (AID – Defence Innovation Agency) and the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA – French Armament General Directorate).
Anti-drone combat: RapidEagle project
SQUADRONE SYSTEM has also proved its ability to mass-produce UAVs in significant volumes with the HEXO+ drone, which was produced in France at a rate of 600 UAVs / week, and to form partnerships for the dissemination of its key technologies (swarms, anti-drone systems) with major defence players such as Thalès and Safran Electronics & Defense.
“While DELAIR’s Security / Defence business has been particularly dynamic over the past two years, our positioning is resolutely dual, with the aim of balancing our civil and military activities at mid-term. The acquisition of SQUADRONE SYSTEM enables us not only to acquire directly the technological backbone of drone swarms, but also to develop our civil industrial inspection activity. The acquisition of SQUADRONE SYSTEM is perfectly aligned with our technological roadmap, which is built around five major technological building blocks (energy, image processing, electronic warfare, swarms and certification). The synergies generated will enable us to gain precious time in an increasingly intense European and global competitive field. This industrial and territorial vision of our development will enable us, step by step, to create a European leader in robotics, based on the technological, academic and industrial specialities specific to each territory and necessary for our complex systems. This will enable us to confront global competition with great ambition,” explains Bastien MANCINI, CEO of DELAIR.
In the civil sector, with UAVs for warehouse inventories, radio spectrum monitoring or aircraft inspection on the ground. With this acquisition, aerial and underwater drone manufacturer DELAIR positions itself as a player in the strengthening of the drone sector in France, and reaches a new milestone in its growth, with a workforce of 150 and a projected turnover of over 30 million euros by 2024. A new site in a world-class technological hub – Grenoble: After Toulouse, the world’s leading aeronautics centre, and Marseilles, home to its marine and submarine activities, DELAIR confirms its local presence by opening a third site in Grenoble, the historic hub of microelectronics in France. At the heart of a world-beating micro and nanotechnology innovation ecosystem.
Delair is a leading provider of drone-based high performance solutions that enable enterprises to monitor and collect, their physical assets from the air before they digitize them and turn the collected data into valuable business insights. Its hardware and software solutions are used globally by customers in industries such as utilities, construction, agriculture, transportation, mining and oil & gas as well as in the Security and Defense.
With 13 years of existence, 30,000+ flight hours, 2 millions of km and more than 3,000 operational drones made in France but with worldwide recognition, Delair has proven its capacity to tackle technological challenges in a young industry, through innovation.
