Delair-Tech Bolstered by Fundraising, Opening U.S. Office
Bolstered by recent work with the national railway system and by a successful $14.5 million fundraising effort, France’s Delair-Tech (Booth #773) is expanding further into the U.S. market, opening up a new office in Los Angeles.
The move to the states will help the Toulouse-based company get closer to the Silicon Valley technology hotbed as well as the vast agricultural market of central California, says Benjamin Benharrosh, director of sales and marketing. The office will handle sales and marketing in the United States, with research and development and manufacturing remaining in France.
Founded in 2011 with four employees, Delair-Tech has grown rapidly, with about 50 employees now. To celebrate its fifth anniversary, the company announced a fundraising-backed growth strategy and the creation of Delair-Services, which offers aerial imaging to clients without them having to buy aircraft. That includes not only imagery from UAS, but also from satellites.
“We could see that many customers that entered the drone technology world don’t know if they want to buy the product or the service. Rather than promoting to them to buy the hardware or the software, we decided to also offer them a service so they can choose the best solution for them,” says Benharrosh.
France is more permissive than the United States in terms of allowing beyond-line-of-sight UAS flights, at least for very lightweight systems — Delair-Tech’s DT-18 was the first drone in France certified for that. The company is now working with the French railway system and airspace regulators to push that envelope further.
It is flying its larger DT-26 UAS — which weighs about 30 pounds and is on display in the company’s booth — in a new phase with the SCNF railway system “to get enough experience to justify that this product is safe enough to change the regulation to open beyond-line-of-sight flights,” Benharrosh says. “We are moving forward together.”
