Recent Contracts with French Army and UAE Signal AgEagle’s Strategic Shift and Rapid Expansion Potential
by DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magil
AgEagle Aerial Systems, an organization that began about 14 years ago as a manufacturer of drones and related products for the agricultural sector, is poised to see explosive growth based largely on sales of products it offers to the safety and defense sectors, the corporate’s CEO said in an interview.
Bill Irby pointed to recent contracts the Wichita-based company had secured — a purchase order order with a number one distributor within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) valued at roughly $2 million, and $3.4 million deal to supply drones and related equipment to the French Army – as indicators that AgEagle is on an upward financial trajectory.
“We just made the shift from a startup company mode right into a growth company mode,” he said. “With these awards coming in, we’re soliciting latest capital to attempt to get investments in the corporate in order that we will fund all of the things we’d like to fund to construct these systems ahead of delivery.
Irby estimated that inside the following 12 months, AgEagle could grow to 3 times its current size.
Launched by a farmer who determined that there was a use for hobby aircraft within the agricultural world, the corporate has focused on producing high-quality flight hardware, sensors and software.
AgEagle went public in 2018 and in 2021 the corporate prolonged its reach in the sector of advanced drone sensor development with the acquisition of MicaSense, Inc. from Parrot , Europe’s leading drone group, in a deal valued at $23 million.
In October 2022, the corporate’s eBee X series of fixed-wing UAVs, including the eBee X, eBee GEO and eBee TAC, became the primary drones in the marketplace to comply with FAA regulations for Operations Over People. Since then AgEagle has continued to flourish, reaching a market cap of roughly $6.3 million.
“We design and construct specialty drones, but we’re a situational awareness company. Our whole purpose is providing awareness to users and operators, whether or not it’s for agriculture, for farmers trying to find out what to do with their crops, or whether or not it’s for security professionals, inspectors of infrastructure, etc.,” Irby said.
Over recent months, the corporate has shifted its business strategy, going from being a general provider of drones and related products, to 1 that is usually focused on growth within the defense and security space. Irby said following this shift AgEagle “began to achieve some steam,” as evidenced by the recent order from the French Army and the UAE contract.
In April the corporate announced that had secured its largest single contract up to now, with a purchase order order placed by a reseller to the French Army. The order includes the delivery of 40 eBee VISION systems – featuring the sunshine and cheap fixed-wing UAV, with a dual-camera package for day and night vision — in addition to nine other eBees, including drones, sensors, datalinks and control stations. The equipment shall be specially tailored for conducting public safety, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
AgEagle followed up on the announced French Army deal earlier this month with the announcement of the UAE transaction. In that agreement, the corporate secured a purchase order order to deliver 20 eBee VISION full-stack systems with control systems, batteries, backpacks and limited spares, to a number one UAE distributor.
Irby said that AgEagle would proceed to think about securing contracts in the safety and military markets, including pursuing sales to the U.S. military. In March 2022, the corporate’s became the primary drone to be added to the DOD’s Blue UAS Cleared List as a part of the Blue sUAS 2.0 project, approving UAV’s to be used by U.S. armed services. Irby said the corporate recently initiated the method to get Blue UAS certification for its eBee VISION aircraft as well.
“We have now U. S. military opportunities type of in our goal zone. I don’t need to specify what those are, but we recently flew an exercise with a U. S. Army unit,” he said. “Where we go together with procurement, that’s as much as the federal government, so I even have no clear answers on that right away.”
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