Brazil’s Grupo DR1 to drive Aerodyne’s Latin American expansion

Leading drone data, tech, and transmission group Aerodyne is continuing to expand its presence in the rapidly growing Latin America market by taking a controlling stake in Brazilian UAV service company Grupo DR1.

Malaysia-based Aerodyne has become one of the world’s top aerial enterprise solution providers by incorporating artificial intelligence applications into what the company calls its drone technology, data technology, and digital transformation services. The controlling position it has bought in Brazil’s Grupo DR1 provides Aerodyne instant access to Latin America’s largest economy, and a springboard from which it can continue to broaden its activities throughout the region.

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With Aerodyne’s backing, Grupo DR1 will have the opportunity to develop its existing drone service offer to clients in mining, oil, and gas ­­– the latter two of which are expected to generate upwards of 70% compound annual growth in UAV data collection and analysis activities in coming years. The Brazilian company also plans to branch into thus far underexploited areas like agriculture and power line inspections, using both remote and autonomous aerial operations with Aerodyne’s support.

Aerodyne has described the partnership as one of over-lapping strengths that will allow Grupo DR1 to draw from the Malaysian company’s far deeper drone tech assets and solutions to further strengthen its solid business base in Brazil – then extend that to neighboring countries. 

Central to Aerodyne’s international success has been its continued use of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence applications in its drone operations, and its ability to adapt those to the specific needs of individual clients in a wide range of sectors. It does so by marketing those solutions as turnkey services covering data collection, processing, and transformation of information into actionable analysis.

Read: Aerodyne Group expands, partners with two Kazakh drone companies 

The company employs over 1,000 drone professionals worldwide, and says it has done work on over 560,000 infrastructure assets in more than 30 countries, racking up a total 458,058 aerial missions. Though Grupo DR1 becomes a relatively small addition to the global group, it provides Aerodyne with an estimated 90% of Brazil’s offshore drone inspection activity.

“This investment is a platform for Aerodyne to expand our footprint into Brazil and to export our technology solutions and other value-added services to Grupo DR1’s existing clientele and beyond,” said Aerodyne chief strategy officer, Amir Zakwan Anuar. “We are proud to be the world’s leader in the use of artificial intelligence as an enabling technology for large-scale data operations, analytics, and process optimization… We look forward to fueling the next phase of growth in LATAM and contribute to the development of the region. Grupo DR1 already has a strong foundation which is perfectly aligned to our vision and has the expertise to further realize the immense potential.”