DRONE VOLT, an international player in the fields of professional civil drones and embedded artificial intelligence, announced on March 2 the acquisition of the assets of the Danish company VIKING DRONE. The latter is specialized in the manufacture of connected drones for developers and integrators. Although DRONE VOLT did not specify the amount of this transaction, it declared that it would be paid in full in cash.

DRONE VOLT, based in Villepinte, France, and founded in 2011, is an international group specializing in the development of new aerial technologies, more specifically in the construction of civil drones and onboard artificial intelligence. Directed by Stefano Valentini, the group employs about 50 people in France and abroad: Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, US and Canada.

The DRONE VOLT Group has three brands: DRONE VOLT, an aeronautical manufacturer and recognized expert in professional civil drones, AERIALTRONICS, a company specialized in artificial intelligence, and DANDRONE, an online distributor of DJI drones and multi-brand accessories for civil and commercial applications.

The leading brand DRONE VOLT designs and manufactures commercial drones in its two production centers based in France and the Netherlands. These drones are intended for various civil applications in the energy, construction, security and agricultural sectors.

DRONE VOLT’s acquisition policy

Last December, DRONE VOLT announced the success of a capital increase of 8.8 million euros, enabling it to support its external growth through the acquisition of companies with strong development potential. The company had also announced its intention to acquire Skytools, a specialist in distribution and service by drones located in the Netherlands. The acquisition was confirmed on January 18. Marc Courcelle, CEO of DRONE VOLT said at the time:

“This acquisition completes our offering in the Netherlands and Northern Europe. It allows us to welcome experienced people in drone distribution and services, and new customers to whom we will be able to offer our entire catalog. Building on the success of the acquisition and integration of AERIALTRONICS, we are convinced of our ability to multiply synergies within the Group to accelerate the growth and profitability of our activities.”

DRONE VOLT now has the necessary financial resources to finance its development and therefore intends to pursue its policy of targeted acquisitions, like that of Viking Drone, in order to integrate new technologies to increase its market share in strategic geographical areas, broaden its product and service offering and accelerate its revenue growth.

Viking Drone

Viking Drone was created by Ramus Gupta who is currently the CEO. He has surrounded himself with Philippe Salmony, Chief Electrical Engineer and Arne Devos, Embedded Systems and Firmware Engineer, to develop a very high-tech drone, very compact and designed to adapt to different types of payloads. This drone is equipped with a computer with the NVIDIA JETSON XAVIER NX module, which facilitates the integration of artificial intelligence, notably thanks to stereoscopic cameras allowing the implementation of anti-collision algorithms.

The three Viking Drone engineers have already joined the DRONE VOLT R&D teams. Marc Courcelle concludes:

“This acquisition significantly strengthens our R&D with technologies that will soon be deployed on all our UAVs, which will allow us to considerably enrich our offer catalog. After the acquisition of SKYTOOLS at the beginning of the year and the purchase of VIKING DRONE’s assets today, we intend to pursue our strategy of targeted acquisitions in the coming months and according to the opportunities.”

Translated from DRONE VOLT annonce l’acquisition des actifs de la société danoise VIKING DRONE