As Waterloo-based Aeryon Labs grows its company, it’s narrowing its focus when it comes to its customers.
“We believe that the future of drones looks more like aviation than it does recreation,” company president Dave Kroetsch said in an interview.
“We shouldn’t build it like a toy. We should build it like an aircraft.”
Aeryon Labs was created in 2007. Its name, Kroetsch says, was a combination of a name that suggests aeronautics and one that would show up at the top of alphabetical lists.
The company quickly grew to become a well-known manufacturer in the budding industry of drones – or, to use the term they prefer, unmanned aerial vehicles.
But while some of its competitors seemed to be focused on recreational users and the consumer market, Aeryon saw a different opportunity knocking.
The company was contacted by the Canadian Armed Forces, which had heard about its drones and thought they “resonated really well” with what the military was looking for.
“They were used to things that had been built from a military heritage, which meant it was really expensive and required a skilled operator,” Kroetsch said.
From those conversations, Aeryon decided to put a heavy focus on people eyeing drones as a way to automate or simplify tasks in their existing jobs.
The company’s vehicles are now used by police services, emergency response operations, the energy sector and other industries. As Kroetsch puts it, they’re leaving uses like real estate photography to their competitors.
“This is a tool to get a job done,” he said.
“When we started, it was about the art and challenge of getting a camera in the sky. That problem’s been solved, so how do we differentiate ourselves from everything else out there?”
The company’s latest concept is AeryonLive, which launched earlier this year and allows images to be transmitted from its drones to a central location off-site in real time.
With reporting by Max Wark
