We are excited to announce our investment in Singapore-based company F-Drones! ??
F-Drones is building the world’s first transition drone to enable aerial deliveries to oil rigs and ships. Superangel joined the $1.4m+ round along with SEEDS Capital, Techstars, Entrepreneur First with a ticket of $75k.
To ground our investment decisions, we typically look at the following – team, technology, market, impact and timing. Here is our take on F-Drones.
Strong Engineering Team
F-Drones features a strong and lean founding team with engineering background on all fronts. Co-founder Nicolas Ang has 10 years experience bringing foreign investments into Singapore and has worked with aerospace, energy, mining and oil & gas industries. Yeshwanth Reddy co-founded AUS, India’s first commercial drone start-up in 2013 (now valued at >$10 mil). The founders are complemented by a strong engineering and operations team, including the operations lead who is a former Air Force officer.
Proprietary Tech and Unique Design
Company’s core IP is the unique aircraft design. They started with an off-the-shelf drone in 2019 and now have moved to a proprietary drone with a payload of 5kg and range of 50km. All with a mission in mind to build a heavy-lift drone that can carry up to 100kg by mid-next year.
Business Model – Aerial Transportation as a Service
F-Drones business model is not to sell drones, rather to provide aerial transportation service. They help ship owners and (offshore) oil majors, which fully or partly operate their own logistics channels, improve operational readiness, efficiency and sustainability.
Market and Timing – Right Place at The Right Time
The drone logistics and transportation market is estimated to be USD 11 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach over USD 29 billion by 2027. Every year, supply vessels and helicopters make more than 2.5 million trips to deliver supplies to ships anchored at ports and offshore oil rigs. There is a market worth US$7 billion, which can be disrupted with innovative aerial solutions. And the timing is everything. F-drones are the first in the world to operate 24/7 drone deliveries. On top of it, COVID has boosted the contactless delivery market and by leveraging the Maritime Drone Estate established by the Singapore government, F-drones have established a unique foothold in the market.
Impact – zero-emissions deliveries are the future!
The technologies for autonomous drones are advancing yearly and the general interest in zero-emissions deliveries is growing exponentially. We believe that this product is far more impactful than the use case today and can become a market leader for deliveries quickly.
We are excited to support F-Drones in their journey!
F-Drones features an executive team with a bold vision for the aerial transportation market. That, in turn, enabled them to build a strong technical product in a licensed field and validate the need among partners and customers. We at Superangel are strong believers in innovation in the hardware and mobility sector, with eight robotics portfolio companies, and we are glad to add F-Drones to the list!
Onwards!