Innovation is continually underway for industries across the board, and plenty of companies have developed advanced uses for technology that differ from what that tech was originally built to do. A prime example of this is drones. The unmanned machinery has been used for purposes ranging from military to recreational, and today it’s employed across a vast array of spaces. Specializing in drone software, DroneDeploy just announced an acquisition that’ll expand the scope of drone use even more.
DroneDeploy has officially added New Zealand-based Rocos to its ranks. Rocos’ cloud platform works to build and manage robot operations with the goal of helping companies connect, monitor and control robots at scale. Meanwhile, DroneDeploy operates a site realty platform that turns job sites into digital twins and provides users with visual data insights. Its goal with this acquisition is to provide its customers across construction, energy and agriculture with upgraded capabilities.
“A few years ago, drones made the leap from hobbyist toys to enterprise tools. Now, ground robotics is on a similar trajectory,” David Inggs, former CEO and co-founder of Rocos and new head of ground robotics at DroneDeploy, said in a statement. “With the addition of Rocos’ ground robotics technology, DroneDeploy can now automate critical data workflows across both air and ground use cases, enabling greater safety and efficiency for the whole worksite.”
The acquisition builds upon the company’s recent growth momentum and follows its $50 million Series E round earlier this year. To date, DroneDeploy has raised $142 million in venture capital. Additionally, enterprise drone data collection operations have increased by 95 percent during Q2 this year, according to the company. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
With the goal to help customers save on resources and human labor, DroneDeploy has already gotten to work leveraging Rocos’ tech. Combining its own indoor data processing capabilities with Rocos’ robotic control platform, DroneDeploy is working to deliver autonomous 360 walkthroughs and inspections at scale. The company is planning to launch its new offerings at its annual DroneDeploy Conference in October.
Currently employing 140 people, the company is also looking to expand its team as it continues to scale. DroneDeploy lists several available roles on its website across engineering, marketing, sales and product.
