Drones in the possession of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on May 2, 2024 in Lviv, Ukraine. “Just open any newspaper and turn on any TV channel. Look what’s happening in Ukraine. Look what’s happening in the Middle East. Drones have changed modern warfare forever , public safety and homeland security,” Aaditya Devarakonda, CEO of Dedrone, told CNBC. on May 6, 2024, the day his startup was acquired by the public security company Axon.
World Images Ukraine | World Images Ukraine | Getty Images
Public safety technology company Axon announced on Monday the acquisition of the drone defense start-up Dedrone.
Dedrone, which serves military, government and commercial customers from airports to stadiums and large-scale events, has become a major player in what is known as intelligent aviation security. Its technology already covers half the US population in 40 cities, 30 airports, 50 stadiums and 50 correctional facilities. Its work spans 36 countries, nine U.S. federal agencies, and more than 35 law enforcement agencies.
Founded in 2014, Dedrone has been funded a total of $127 million by existing investors, including Axon, who co-led a financing round with venture capital firms in July 2022, and served on the board of administration of Dedrone.
The company ranked 23rd on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the second half of 2024, were not disclosed.
Axon, which is best known for the Taser, also offers body cameras, in-car cameras and a cloud-based digital evidence management platform – for assets including video from Axon body cameras. Its clients include first responders in international, federal, state and local law enforcement, fire departments, correctional facilities and the justice sector, in addition to a commercial enterprise.
Axon CEO Rick Smith, who founded the public safety company three decades ago, told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan in an exclusive interview that what Dedrone has done to protect public airspace matches the mission of his company. “And you can see what’s happening around the world. Drones are very promising, but also very dangerous. So by combining forces, we are able to combine our scale with ingenuity and innovation of Dedrone so we can protect more lives in more time.” places,” Smith said.
Axon, whose market valuation exceeds $24 billion, has seen its shares rise from a low of $50 in 2019 to more than $300 today. Its most recent annual revenue was $1.5 billion. Its latest results were released alongside the acquisition announcement on Monday afternoon.
Aaditya Devarakonda, a former technology investment banker and advisor to Dedrone, who has served as CEO of Dedrone since 2020, highlighted the company’s growing footprint in sectors ranging from government to utilities to critical infrastructure, event venues, airports and correctional facilities as a good fit with Axon’s ecosystem of connected devices and software.
“We are deployed on 800 different sites,” Devarakonda told Brennan. “We keep bad drones away. … Just open any newspaper and turn on any TV channel. Look what is happening in Ukraine. Look at what is happening in the Middle East. Drones have forever changed modern warfare, public safety, and homeland security. … Look, every airport needs it, every prison needs it.”
Dedrone systems are at work in Ukraine.
Dedrone’s core product, Dedrone Tracker, provided security for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, protecting 900 square kilometers of airspace and 44 key venues. It has also worked with the Formula 1 Grand Prix. The tracker can detect some 200 drone models from 65 manufacturers, trigger alarms and analyze incident data to create forensic reports.
It introduced a first responder drone field-tested by police departments and launched DedroneTactical, a ready-to-use, transportable radar with AI-driven detection equipment. Chief among its new products is DedroneCityWide, which acts as an air traffic control system for drones and recognized by Time as the best invention of 2023.
Over the past year, Dedrone technology has been designated as the only counter-drone approved for counterterrorism use by the Department of Homeland Security.
Smith estimates that Dedrone will increase Axon’s total available market by more than 20%. In a world where drones that consumers can basically buy at Best Buy or online today can, with reuse and minor projects, be transformed from consumer toys into “things that can be quite dangerous,” Smith said , Dedrone is in a space where the company will need help determining both the risks and the “huge growth area” for the public safety sector to have its own drones.
Today, getting a drone on scene well before a police car can get there in traffic means having a police officer standing on a roof. “You look into the distance and try to see a drone. We know that a superhuman sensor array can track drones and keep the airspace much safer than a person standing on a roof,” Smith said.
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