Whenever you consider the high drone startups in Malaysia, it’s unattainable to not point out Aerodyne and Aonic.
The 2 startups’ founders shared the stage throughout the latest Tech in Asia convention in KL for a panel titled “Pivoting on the Drone Tech Journey”.
From Aerodyne, there’s Kamarulazman Muhamed (who goes by Kamarul), the founder and group CEO. In the meantime, Jin Xi Cheong (who goes by JX) is the founder and CEO of Aonic, which some would possibly keep in mind as Poladrone again in the day.
Moderated by ScaleUp Malaysia’s Aaron Sarma, the two dronetech juggernauts shared that this may be one among the first instances they have been featured in a panel collectively. Right here’s a little bit backstory on who they’re, and the way they’ve grown.
Get to know them
Based in 2014, Aerodyne is a DT3 enterprise options supplier utilizing drone information and AI-powered analytics. DT3 stands for dronetech, information tech, and digital transformation.
Aerodyne is definitely Kamarul’s fourth startup, with him having exited the final three. The final was a media firm that had a drone division. At the time, drones have been primarily used for visible options, however in 2014, he realised there was a larger potential in the sector.
It began with challenge monitoring options, rising from only one website to finally 50. In simply two years, the crew grew from three folks to 200.
In the meantime, Aonic was based in 2016. As talked about, it was previously often called Poladrone, which is a portmanteau of Polaroid and drones, signifying the startup’s previous focus on visuals-based options.
JX shared that he’d been enjoying round with drones since he was fairly younger. Spending a while in Australia, he observed how sturdy the drone racing tradition there was.
After pursuing aerospace engineering in Australia, he labored at Intel for some years, the place one challenge concerned utilizing drones. It was then that he noticed a giant hole in the understanding of drones in the area in addition to with the technical capabilities of drone customers.
That was the spark to type Poladrone. From there, he began venturing into industrial purposes, finally carving out an area in the agriculture scene, permitting farmers to function cutting-edge know-how.
Filled with pivots
Somewhat than consider themselves as primarily drone firms, although, the two startups really contemplate themselves to be an information firm first.
Kamarul mentioned that information is at the core of what Aerodyne does. “In fact, I have more than 150 data engineers and AI scientists,” he mentioned.
As JX mentioned, if you consider a drone, it’s only a flying digital camera in the sky. What’s invaluable is the information that it captures.
The Aonic CEO additionally mentioned that except they’re a producer, drone startups who don’t hone in on information are in all probability not round anymore.
Each firms made this realisation that they needed to be greater than simply drone companies some years in the past.
For Aerodyne, Kamarul mentioned {that a} motivating issue for the enterprise again in 2014 was a report from PwC that acknowledged the drone industry was set to be value round US$128 billion.
So, he made the pivot from his media firm. However then, he mentioned that the determine was truthfully removed from the reality, and that by 2020 it wasn’t even 25% of the projected market measurement.
However he mentioned that earlier in 2017, he already realised that it wasn’t about flying drones—it’s actually about the information. From there, they started working with shoppers like TNB to leverage drones to supply options.
And now, with the introduction of AI, the newest pivot is to focus on AI tech. Kamarul even talked about the growth of an enterprise LLM (massive language mannequin) that may enable for a type of “Uber-isation” of dronetech.
Aonic realised the shift in about 2018 and 2019. When Poladrone first launched, the goal was to make drones accessible to all with a spotlight on mapping companies. After some years, although, they realised they couldn’t scale. One motive was as a result of as a service supplier, they have been overly reliant on operations and other people.
Thus, they determined to method the industry differently, going from service supplier to options supplier.
Because of this they might shift their focus to not simply provide companies to shoppers, however allow them to do it themselves. This was a scary juncture, in fact.
“Essentially, you’re teaching the customer to fish themselves,” JX identified. Nevertheless, they knew that drones have been nonetheless very technical, involving a big quantity of knowledge. So, there have been nonetheless lots of value-added companies that they might present shoppers.
This pivot allowed them to scale shortly, they usually’ve grown the crew from 20 to 250 since 2019.
Placing Malaysia on the map
Nevertheless, the marketplace for drone companies is just not sufficiently big in Malaysia, Kamarul mentioned. Thus, to actually scale, you could transcend.
The way in which that Aerodyne approached international growth was by way of strategic M&As (mergers and acquisitions). They’d search for high firms in the area, then make investments and take a controlling stake in the firm. However why would these firms need to promote?
Nicely, Kamarul mentioned that the outcomes converse for themselves. When Aerodyne invests, revenues go up.
Nevertheless, for Aonic, on condition that they’ve extra restricted funds, increasing by the use of M&As wouldn’t be believable.
As a substitute, they needed to rely on extra grassroots effort, increasing into different international locations by way of a structured and sluggish method.
Shifting ahead, Aonic goals to additional focus on the agriculture sector and construct an entire ecosystem that exists past dronetech. Going downstream, they’re even taking a look at promoting fertiliser and seeds, in addition to serving to finance founders.
As for Aerodyne, they’ve grown from serving firms to enterprises, and now, they intention to resolve nationwide issues. Which may be in agriculture or maybe logistics.
One other one is training. As we speak, there’s already the Aerodyne Flight Institute. However Kamarul shared that they need to begin a college to construct the proper expertise pool in Malaysia.
Aonic and Aerodyne undoubtedly have contributed so much in the direction of placing Malaysia on the map in relation to dronetech. And with JX and Kamarul’s bold plans, it looks as if they’re intent on holding us there.
Study extra about Aerodyne right here.
Study extra about Aonic right here.
Learn different articles we’ve written about drones right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Vulcan Submit
