Detecting and tracking a small drone flying in a large 3D space with sufficient accuracy to mitigate any threat in time, is a very hard technical problem to solve. It also happens to represent the most significant asymmetric risk to our national security and public safety at large, today.
At Dedrone, we wake up every day thinking about this challenge and are constantly innovating to solve this problem at scale globally. Our customers’ property, critical assets, and sometimes even lives depend on us doing a better job every day. This sense of purpose inspires us as an organization and provides a north star to everything we do. We absolutely relish this mission and have proven over and over that we are the best in the industry at solving this problem.
Today, we are proud to announce an investment led by Axon Enterprise that will accelerate this journey and help us bring Dedrone solutions to more customers around the world. We were looking for a partner who embodies our same spirit of public safety and knows what it means to be responsible for protecting lives. In Axon, we found a strategic partner with the mission and vision needed to understand our purpose and we couldn’t be more proud of this alliance with an ultra-talented and driven organization like them.
Our technology leadership, customer satisfaction, and geographic footprint continue to expand rapidly. We have over 1,000 sensors deployed and more than 100 active customers worldwide. Our Net Promoter Score (NPS) in a recent survey came up as 79, which ranks somewhere between “Excellent” and “World Class” according to the metric’s creator, Bain. We are now implemented in 33 countries -- serving four G-7 nation governments, 20 airports, over 50 prisons, and 65 critical infrastructure sites. This global expansion has translated into strong and increasing revenue growth year over year, and Dedrone now has offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Columbus OH, London, and Germany. But this is just the beginning. We know we have a huge market ahead of us and the sky is the limit to what our team can do.
This investment is a thumping endorsement for our customers, employees, and investors who have all believed in us. It is with a tremendously grateful heart that I take a moment to thank our customers for their feedback and support to help make us better. They believed in us and serving them has motivated us – we will continue to do our very best every day to continue winning their hearts and minds.
And, of course, a special shoutout to our team, or “Dronies” as we call ourselves. We built a company culture based on a “5x better” product, customer obsession, and trust. We have some of the smartest engineering and commercial talent in the industry, and we have stayed grounded and collegial, especially through the pandemic. I can’t thank you all enough for your leadership and ownership in putting the best foot forward every day for our customers during these unprecedented times. We have the best team in the business and we will keep raising that bar.
Last but not the least, I also want to thank our existing investors who all participated in the round (100% participation from all major shareholders), including Menlo Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Aqton Partners, Target Partners, TempoCap, and John Chambers, Chairman Emeritus of Cisco Systems and founder of JC2 Ventures. A huge thank you for supporting us through this journey and we are glad to have each one of you as our partners.
Thank You!
What’s Next?
The investment itself is never the ultimate barometer of success. Success will be born from what we do with the funding, and how we continue to demonstrate leadership in the industry. We continue to grow our winning team with a focus on accelerating our technology development, improving customer service and expanding globally.
As we all know, drones are becoming both more productive tools in our lives -- in everything from delivery, construction, agriculture, and law enforcement -- while simultaneously moving from an emerging threat to the active danger it is today. Just last month, the FBI confirmed that last year we saw the first attempted drone-based terrorist attack on the U.S. soil. Contraband drops at prisons are escalating and most airports around the world remain defenseless against unauthorized drones as the number of sightings just continues to grow.
Dedrone offers security teams real tools to answer these threats. Rather than looking up at the sky, powerless and wondering what the drone above may be intending, officers are able to get early warning of potential threats, identify “friend” or “foe” and then locate the drone and the pilot.
Dedrone represents a powerful solution to a problem that is here to stay. We anticipate continued success as we work to ensure secure airspace for governments, prisons, critical infrastructure, airports, corporations, events and much more. It is an exciting time to work with such a strong team in an industry that is growing rapidly, and we look forward to our future and the partners who will help us achieve our goals.
