Ann: Scale up for major project and shift to volume manufacturing, page-28

Drones are on the fast track thanks to COVID-19, military is the sector’s biggest customer

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* also spoke with Mobilicom (ASX:MOB) CEO and co-founder Oren Elkayam about opportunities in the global market for drone-adjacent companies.

The company’s core product offering is based around mission-critical communication components for drones to communicate with each other or send data back to a central database.

Elkayam said the company’s goal was to become a “tier one provider of critical components for drones and robotics”.

“It’s duplicating a business model that exists in the vehicle market. Everyone is familiar with brands like Volvo and BMW. But the real giants of the industry are the tier one component providers like Continental Tyres and Bosch,” he said.

“We are duplicating the same approach to robotics and drones — effectively providing the critical building blocks for drone manufacturers.”

Elkayam said that for drone component manufacturers, the key focus areas would be centred around communication and data security.

And by sector, Mobilicom is geared towards homeland security and defence, along with civilian security and monitoring. “Other operations of drones and robots are less relevant for our technology,” he said.

Elkayam added that the COVID-19 pandemic would help accelerate development in the market as regulators allowed for a “faster evolution”.

“Instead of happening over five years it will happen over three years, and I think defence and homeland security will be the biggest portion of that,” he said.