Hartford-based Aquiline Drones, a manufacturer of remotely piloted-miniature aircraft, has acquired a 50% stake in a Dutch company with similar areas of focus, including drones, information technology and artificial intelligence.
Aquiline announced Monday that it paid $9 million for half of Aerialtronics, a subsidiary of Drone Volt, a publicly-traded French manufacturer of professional civil-use drones. Aerialtronics is best known as the maker of the Altura Zenith, a popular commercial drone, and the Pensar multispectral sensor camera.
An exclusive licensing agreement with Drone Volt allows Aquiline to rebrand and produce the Altura Zenith as part of its “Spartacus” line of uncrewed aerial vehicles.
Drone Volt will retain operational control of Aerialtronics, according to Aquiline.
In a statement, Aquiline founder and CEO Barry Alexander said the deal will help bolster efforts to ramp up production of American-made drones, which are much in demand for jobs such as infrastructure inspection and land management now that the federal government has recommended against buying UAV technology from China.
Launched about five years ago, Aquiline Drones manufactures and assembles commercial-use drones inside the Stark Building — formerly the Hartford Trust Co. Building — in downtown Hartford.
