Terra Drone’s investment in Aloft Technologies set to unleash the potential of UTM, UAM, eVTOLS and beyond
March 26, 2024
News about Terra Drone’s strategic investment in Aloft Technologies made waves across the drone industry, as it brought the UAS Service Supplier under the wing of one of the world’s largest industrial drone solution providers as an affiliate. It’s a development that puts Terra Drone in a position to further contribute to the development of the UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) ecosystem on a global scale.
We can talk about this news as a further contribution of the endeavor on account of Terra Drone’s 2023 acquisition of a majority share of Unifly, which expanded its global drone and UAM (Urban Air Mobility) operations. Unifly has a longtime commitment to leading and setting benchmarks in UTM and UAM, which was recently highlighted with the completion of an FAA-backed UTM project.
While the news about Terra Drone investing in Aloft mentioned that evolving UTM on a global level was one of the drivers, there were actually several motivations behind Terra Drone’s decision to make this investment.
“Firstly, UTM is fundamental to our strategic vision,”
The FAA’s Innovate 28 was also mentioned as one of the reasons that the investment made sense for Terra Drone, as the initiative underscores the increasing significance that the FAA places on UTM with the future of aviation. The “Innovate 28” plan includes various components and the sequence they will occur in for operations to be at scale at one or more sites by 2028. The investment will help position Terra Drone as a key player in this evolving landscape of aviation and drone technology.
Another significant factor driving Terra Drone’s investment is the appeal of the people behind it. Founded in 2015 by Jon Hegranes and Joshua Ziering, we’ve detailed Aloft’s efforts to create tools that support safe and compliant drone operations as well as how their solutions can help define the future of the airspace. Those efforts have enabled Aloft to boast an 80% share of the U.S. UTM market, which is in stark contrast to many similar service providers that have disappeared. Their focus and resilience resonated with the Terra Drone team on multiple levels.
“We have immense confidence in the visionary leadership of its founders, Jon and Josh, who have consistently demonstrated unwavering dedication to the industry’s advancement,”
Current Aloft customers won’t notice any major changes with the Aloft solution, as ongoing operations and services are expected to continue seamlessly. While there won’t be a short-term impact on Aloft’s existing customers, it’s the long-term opportunities that are most exciting to the people involved and the industry as a whole.
While Aloft has not yet expanded globally, Terra Drone’s affiliation offers the possibility of reaching broader markets. This partnership has the potential to enhance Aloft’s ability to serve a wider customer base beyond its current geographical scope to become a bigger enabler of the US drone industry, creating opportunities that will be realized across the world.
“With this announcement, we anticipate witnessing a groundbreaking worldwide collaboration among leading players and thought leaders in the industry,”
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