Top 20: Own 58% of approximately 133 million shares on issue.
Management:
Jack Wu (Co-founder and CEO with 4.25 million shares) – previously, Jack was hired by Carl Page (the venture capitalist brother of Google co-founder Larry Page) and was employee number three in a startup called “eGroups, Inc” which was acquired by Yahoo! in August 2000 for approximately USD 432 million.
John Hsu (Co-founder and CTO with 4.25 million shares) - former SpaceX engineer who received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in 2004. His doctoral dissertation work includes novel numerical algorithm development for solving complex unsteady transonic flows and coupled aerodynamics. Upon completion of his Ph.D., John worked at SpaceX on Falcon's navigation system, developed aerodynamics and structural coupled loads analysis simulations, and performed orbital trajectory optimization analysis.
Additionally, at Willow Garage, John was responsible for defining the vision for the autonomous car project.
Willow Garage hired its first employees in January 2007: Jonathan Stark, Melonee Wise, Curt Meyers, and John Hsu. The company was best known for its open-source software suite Robot Operating System, which rapidly and widely become a common, standard tool among robotics researchers and industry. It was begun in late 2006 by Scott Hassan, who had worked with Larry Page and Sergey Brin to develop the technology that became the Google Search engine.
The reason I go in to such detail with the co-founders behind NGL is to highlight that they are incredibly smart, and also incredibly ambitious. They also hold millions of shares in this company, so their interests are very well-aligned with ordinary shareholders.
__________ Intro Hook:
Right now, NGL drones are protecting a large US Air Force base where there are nuclear weapons on-site.
(Source: YouTube, 8:20) .
It’s quite exciting technology and a huge vote of confidence from a very high-profile customer.
Would you like to know more?
The NGL Competitive Advantage:
NGL’s flagship product is its AI-powered Blackbird Security Drone (which includes a Base Station and Intelligent Mission Control Software). NGL customers typically have large facilities or jurisdictions with potentially thousands of acres / square miles to patrol. In these scenarios, human security guards struggle to physically inspect the entire perimeter – even when they are able to drive around using vehicles.
It is also cost prohibitive to install cameras everywhere when your perimeter is miles long. This is where NGL’s patented technology platform comes in – it is capable of solving large perimeter patrol requirements autonomously and rapidly responding to incidents when required. The product is very well tailored to respond on a moment’s notice – whether that be in response to a gunshot or a 911 call – this drone is the new first responder.
Why is a speedy response time important? Fast response times reduce liability and the ability to cause further harm. Indeed, in the case of the recently signed San Pablo Police Department (Announced 11 September 2023), the drone has the ability to broadcast a live video feed to responding officers, who are able to determine what is going on before they even arrive. No more guesswork or police going in blind to potentially dangerous situations – drones are a tremendous capability for law enforcement and this uptake will almost certainly continue.
NGL’s other unique appeal is the combined hardware and software solution that stores and analyses data using edge computing. That is, the data collected is stored in the drone and in the base station – it is NOT shared on the cloud like most ‘drone-in-a-box’ competitor solutions, and is completely air gapped able to function WITHOUT any internet.
Why is this important? High-profile customers–such as the US Air Force, US Police Departments, any critical infrastructure vendors–are acutely aware of the modern cyber security threat landscape. This is a key differentiator of the NGL patented solution. Furthermore, being edge based and having the data stored inside the base station at the customer’s location enables NGL to continue to operate even if all other power and networks are out.
Cloud based solutions work when everything is rosy – but for security, you don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing when things go wrong.
Physical Attributes:
The NGL drone has been iterated on over many years with millions of dollars sunk into R&D – these are developments and breakthroughs that ONLY occur by going out to tender with real customers in real locations. This is why NGL is so reliable.
Above is an image of the air-cooled Heatsink, which came from live operational experience in Saudi Arabia and Arizona – where temperatures can exceed 50 degrees Celsius. Under these temperatures, the drones were initially experiencing some trouble flying. The heatsink solution allows the propellers rotating during flight to actually cool down the drone while it is in operation. Just one example of iterative improvement over time, compared with other drones.
Here are more photos (pictured above) of the charging pad and maintenance lid after 3 years and 10 months of continuous use at a particular customer site.
Looks well-used right? It is as effective and efficient today as it was on Day One. The ugliness of the charging pad has NO bearing on the efficiency of the charging. It is able to respond, day or night, regardless of weather conditions (short of a hurricane or tornado).
I see a solution that is Mission Ready, battle-tested and dependable, for first responders and military and security customers.
Conclusion:
I challenge you to find an equivalent opportunity on the ASX to invest in the ground floor of a Silicon Valley-based technology company, with this kind of global potential backed by very technically experienced founders.
If you don’t see the value in an artificial intelligence-enhanced automated security solution–that is being integrated by the likes of the US Air Force and US Police Departments–well, that’s on you.
One for the watchlist at the very least. An absolute steal at 5 million AUD market cap in my humble opinion.
Just my $0.02. Please do your own research and form your own opinions.
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