Dronamics eyes drone serial production, signs delivery deal with Aramex

The joint venture will establish the first serial production plant for the Dronamics Black Swan cargo drone, capable of producing up to 300 Black Swan drones per year, the Bulgarian company said in a press release.

"This joint venture will propel our advanced cargo drone technology into the market on a grand scale," Svilen Rangelov, co-founder and CEO of Dronamics, said. He added that the company will be able to leverage "the UAE’s exceptional infrastructure" to advance its goal of providing same-day delivery services worldwide.

The state-owned fund, which focuses on sectors such as aviation, aerospace, defence, energy storage, security and robotics, invested in Dronamics through its venture capital division in 2022. It took part in the cargo drone airline's 40 million US dollars ($36.8 million) pre-seed funding round to finance its planned expansion in the Middle East and North Africa.

In a separate statement, Dronamics announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Dubai-listed courier firm Aramex to jointly deploy the Black Swan cargo drone initially in the UAE, and subsequently in key markets like South Africa and Australia.

"We hope to pilot flights with Dronamics in 2024 partnering with the broader ecosystem of regulators and enablers,” Aramex global innovation director Angad Singh said.

The partnership will see Dronamics, which engineers and operates the remotely-piloted cargo aircraft, supply its drone technology to Aramex to enable same-day middle-mile and long-range deliveries.

Aramex, which was founded in 1982, moves 100 million parcels annually. The Black Swan will further the provision of express deliveries, a sector in which Aramex specialises.

Last month, Dronamics agreed to run a pilot project on same-day middle-mile and long-range deliveries in the UAE.

Shares in Dronamics's Sofia-listed special purpose vehicle Dronamics Capital [BUL:DRON] were trading 2.40% higher at 2.99 levs ($1.65 /1.52 euro) as at 1422 CET.

($ = 0.9210 euro)