Aerones raises $9M to scale on-site robotic operations

Aerones, the company that builds robots to automate and scale wind turbine inspection and maintenance, raised a $9M seed round to scale production, expand services and meet fast-growing demand. The round was led by Future Positive Capital, alongside existing investor Change Ventures. Other investors include Skype founder Jaan Tallinn (through his vehicle Metaplanet), Vinted co-founder Mantas Mikuckas, Printify CEO James Berdigans, Capitalia, Pace Ventures, and EcoSummit.

With its suite of proprietary robots, Aerones inspects and maintains turbines up to six times faster and up to 40% more cost efficiently than humans. As opposed to conventional inspections and maintenance operations (where humans rappel down turbines in sometimes dangerous weather conditions), Aerones’ robots deliver results without any safety risks to individuals, and in a broader range of weather conditions.

“We are rapidly scaling up operations in terms of robots and service teams in the field. This funding enables us to continue our rapid growth and prepare for our Series A funding round later this year,” explains Aerones’s CEO and co-founder Dainis Krūze.

Aerones’ expansion is rooted in the company’s focus on R&D and engineering. Their core technology is a unique and patented computerized winch system that controls a high-precision robotic arm. The company provides services like leading edge repair, detailed external inspections, data analysis, lightning protection system tests, NDT ultrasound inspections, drainage hole cleaning as well as blade cleaning, de-icing and coating applications – all of which can be controlled remotely.

“We are constantly developing new robotic solutions to address our customers’ needs and expand our suite of services. as an example, we recently released an internal inspection robot that crawls and scans inside wind turbine blades and provides digital twin inspection data with unprecedented detail, and a cleaning solution that removes dirt and oil from turbine towers and blades very effectively,” said co-founder and CTO Jānis Putrāms.

Aerones already works with nine of the world’s ten largest wind companies, including Siemens Gamesa, Enel, GE and Vestas, and has now serviced over 3000 wind turbines in 17 countries across North and South America as well as Europe.

“Aerones is the first full-stack player in the industry. As opposed to companies that merely use remote sensing to capture data or focus on analytics, Aerones automates complex operations. They are becoming the one-stop-shop for O&Ms to streamline operations, and help accelerate the scale-up of renewable energy to reach Net Zero emissions,” said Sofia Hmich, founder of Future Positive Capital.

“Only improvements and the introduction of disruptive activities can provide us with the competitive advantages that will enable us to maintain our wind energy business and provide new sustainable solutions for our activities. The innovation that we are introducing thanks to an agreement with Aerones will lead to more responsible production through innovative advances that improve the development of one of the most widespread renewable energy in the world: wind,” adds Fancisco J. Valle, Wind Innovation Product Owner at Enel Green Power.

Source: labsoflatvia.com