Airware acquires drone data analytics pioneer Redbird

Airware, the commercial drone solutions provider working with some of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the US, has acquired Redbird, a France-based pioneer in drone data analytics for mining. Redbird is covered extensively in the drones article in the October issue of International Mining.

Redbird brings sophisticated geospatial analytics to the Airware Aerial Information Platform, providing customers with the combined power of Redbird’s industry-specific analytics and Airware’s enterprise-focused workflow, compliance, and security features that companies are using to scale drone operations. Airware states that “together, Airware and Redbird provide the most complete offering for mines and quarries to help digitize and optimize operations.

“Construction and excavation sites, such as mines and quarries, must be managed and operated digitally in order to compete in today’s markets. Commercial drone technology brings these operations into the digital world while offering faster, cheaper and higher-quality data and analytics,” said Jonathan Downey, founder & CEO of Airware. “By acquiring Redbird and incorporating Redbird’s powerful analytics tools on top of the Airware platform, we are helping these enterprises make this transition into the digital age.”

With Airware and Redbird’s combined solution companies benefit from 100X more data, and potentially 5X faster turnaround on data analytics. Customers can plan drone flights, capture high-quality aerial data, analyze it, and create detailed, survey-grade mining site maps of up to 1,000 acres per day, per drone, for immediate and exact production tracking and site safety assessment.

“Before working with Redbird, we needed about five days to survey our sites. Today, once the drone has flown over our quarries, I’ll get the production data the next morning.” said Vincent Amossé, Deputy CEO, Groupe CB – Aggregates Division. “When we started using Redbird and saw the immediate impact on our business, we wanted a way to scale our use of drones to more frequent surveys across more sites. Now with Airware, we can access an end-to-end enterprise solution that enables us to manage our entire drone operations from planning and worker management, to repeatable data capture, and analysis and reporting.”

“Airware is a company that provides complete drone solutions to enterprise customers. In joining the Airware team, we will be able to rapidly provide complete solutions to the mining, quarrying, and construction industries, allowing us to expand globally into the U.S. market,” said Emmanuel de Maistre, co-founder and CEO of Redbird. “There’s never been a more exciting time for this partnership to take place as building materials companies and contractors are no longer experimenting with drones, but are looking to put drones to work for their businesses.”

In addition, in May 2016 Caterpillar and Redbird expanded the geographic scope of the previously announced marketing agreement in response to greater than expected customer interest. Under this expanded agreement, Redbird’s data analysis and reporting tools are now offered to Caterpillar customers worldwide, instead of only in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. With Airware and Redbird, Caterpillar will advance site intelligence and machine productivity through high-quality aerial data and analytics for their customers and dealers.

“Airware’s acquisition of Redbird increases Caterpillar dealers’ solutions offerings by enhancing their ability to provide an end-to-end enterprise drone solution globally, helping our customers maximize productivity, work smarter, and optimize operations,” said George Taylor, Vice President with responsibility for Marketing and Digital at Caterpillar. “By working with leading companies in their fields, we help create value for our customers and provide a competitive edge.”

Redbird’s Paris, France, office will become Airware’s European Headquarters. The Paris-based team will continue to build analytics applications while also supporting Airware’s new integrated solutions for European-based customers and partners.

“Over the last six months, our customer base has grown to include European enterprises. With the Paris-based office, we’ll support our existing European customers, as well as meet the growing global demand for commercial drone technology,” said Downey.