Aerones Raises $9 Million to Inspect Wind Turbines With Robots

Robot company Aerones – that manufactures robots to serve wind turbines – has announced an important milestone in its history whereby it has raised $9 million in seed funding to further accelerate global scaling of robotic wind turbine maintenance and inspection.

The official statement has informed that the round was led by Future Positive Capital, alongside existing investor Change Ventures. Other investors include Jaan Tallinn, Mantas Mikuckas, James Berdigans, Capitalia, Pace Ventures, and EcoSummit.

With its suite of proprietary robots, Aerones inspects and maintains turbines. Technology has replaced human interventions to a great extent. Aerones says that its robots work up to six times faster and up to 40 per cent more cost efficiently than humans.

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In the conventional inspections and maintenance operations humans rappel down turbines in sometimes dangerous weather conditions. Now Aerones’ robots deliver results without any safety risks to individuals, and in a broader range of weather conditions.

Aerones already works with nine of the world’s ten largest wind companies, including Siemens Gamesa, Enel, GE and Vestas. Aerones has now serviced over 3000 wind turbines in 17 countries across North America, South America and Europe.

Aerones has signed long-term service agreements with industry leaders. It claims that its business has grown more than tenfold in Q1 year-on-year, despite the unfavorable Covid-19 context.

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“We are rapidly scaling up operations in terms of robots and service teams in the field. This funding enables us to continue our rapid growth and prepare for our Series A funding round later this year, ”explained Dainis Kruze, CEO and Co-Founder,  Aerones.

Sofia Hmich, Founder of Future Positive Capital, said, “Aerones is the first full-stack player in the industry. As opposed to companies that merely use remote sensing to capture data or focus on analytics, Aerones automates complex operations. They are becoming the one-stop-shop for O&Ms to streamline operations, and help accelerate the scale-up of renewable energy to reach Net Zero emissions.”

Fancisco Valle from Enel Green Power commented on Aerones technology, “Only improvements and the introduction of disruptive activities can provide us with the competitive advantages that will enable us to maintain our wind energy business and provide new sustainable solutions for our activities.”

As the world invests in decarbonisation and sustainable energy, wind energy offers a cost-effective and domestic solution. As the pace of new wind developments accelerates exponentially by 2030, the $30B global wind turbine operation and maintenance market is projected to double.

“We are constantly developing new robotic solutions to address our customers’ needs and expand our suite of services as an example, we recently released an internal inspection robot that crawls and scans inside wind turbine blades and provides digital twin inspection data with unprecedented detail, and a cleaning solution that removes dirt and oil from turbine towers and blades very effectively,” said Janis Putrams, Co-Founder and CTO, Aerones.