Bulgaria's Dronamics to pilot postal drone delivery in UAE

Under the terms of the agreement, Dronamics will be able to carry out proof-of-concept (POC) flights for postal and express business delivery services in the UAE using at least one drone aircraft by 2024, the Bulgarian company said in a press release on Friday.

Dronamics's flagship aircraft is the Black Swan cargo drone, which can fly at a distance of up to 2,500 km, carrying cargo weighing up to 350 kg and which in May took to the skies in its first full-scale flight.

The new agreement foresees the development of a cargo drone delivery network in the UAE and later in the other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The GCC is an economic cooperation body set up in 1981 and comprising the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Emirates Post Group, which is fully-owned by the Emirates Investment Authority, eventually intends to partner with Dronamics to set up a joint venture in the UAE, according to the statement.

If the pilot project is successful, the listed postal services group will aim to incorporate Dronamics' technology into its logistics network.

The agreement with Post Group was signed at the launch of the Smart and Autonomous Vehicles Industry (SAVI) Cluster in Abu Dhabi, which will spur the creation of a regional smart and autonomous vehicle hub aiming to attract relevant OEMs, start-ups, researchers and talent.

"Partnering with Emirates Post Group provides us with the exciting opportunity to work on our expansion to the Middle East and the United Arab Emirates in particular," Dronamics CEO and co-founder Svilen Rangelov said.

A Middle East joint venture for Dronamics has been in the offing for some months now, with the company in February having raised $40 million (38 million euro) from a number of investors including the state-owned defence and security fund of the UAE.

Dronamics, which has a Sofia-listed special purpose vehicle Dronamics Capital [BUL:DRON], launched an exclusive pre-Series A funding round via Romania-based crowdfunding platform SeedBlink in July. Shares in Dronamics Capital traded 0.33% higher at 3.00 ($1.61 /1.53 euro) levs as of 1036 CEST on Monday.

($ = 0.9492 euro)