Safe landing of an Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle (UAV), even under various uncertainties and wind disturbances, is no longer a problem. That’s been mastered.
Landing on precise location, static or moving, with almost zero error, is the challenge that’s driving start-ups, established companies and investors towards developing technologies that guide drones to near-perfect landing. It is crucial when it comes to critical missions, like search-and-rescue and disaster relief operations.
While deep tech, especially AI, companies are continually innovating, this space has been trending on almost every investor’s list as well. And Europe is the hot bed. Recent years have seen a surge in European startups developing deep tech products based on scientificbreakthroughs.
According to the latest State of European Tech report, European startups raised $41 billion in 2020, just eclipsing the $40.6 billion in 2019. And the continent is expected to attract more investment this year.
Internest, a Paris-based deep tech start-up that has made advancements in technology that guides drones to precise landings, fixed or mobile targets. Given its futuristic technology, the company has attracted funding from Boundary Holding, a European investment firm led by Rajat Khare who’s known to invest in deep tech companies that have the potential to advance the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
While the precise amount of the seed round, which started in 2019 and was extended in 2020, has not been disclosed yet, it has been reliably learnt that Internest will likely channel this latest funding towards further advancement in technology.
To ensure exact landing, it uses the Local Landing System equipped with two sensors on the rotary wing of the drone and four on the landing platform. It uses ultrasound waves and radio technology to map out the exact position of the drone in order to adjust its landing.
In Europe, deep tech makes up roughly a quarter of the start-up ecosystem and together, the companies are valued at €150bn. And across the last ten years too, investment into deep tech companies has increased nearly eleven-fold, reaching €9.5bn invested in 2019.
And unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence continues to be the largest sector within the industry, with European AI companies worth €18.3bn combined.
We are officially in the era of deep tech.
