Companies with counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) technology are having a solid week. A couple of days after C-UAS innovator Dedrone announced a new partnership, Australia’s Droneshield has revealed a deal for Torrance, California-based Epirus, another firm involved in C-UAS, to invest about $2.5 million in Droneshield.
The investment, involving a share placement of 18,500,000 fully paid ordinary shares in the Droneshield at $0.20 per share expected to occur next week, will leave Epirus hold a 4.1% interest in DroneShield.
Droneshield said the funds will be put to work helping the firm scale up of ready inventory and long lead items, to rapidly fulfill anticipated orders; continue building its engineering and operations to support current momentum; and for general working capital purposes.
Epirus describes itself as a developer of “software-defined directed energy systems that enable unprecedented counter-electronics effects and power management solutions to optimize power efficiency in defense and commercial applications.” The company’s Leonidas solid-state, software-defined high-power microwave (HPM) technology enables counter-electronics effects for a range of use cases, the company said.
Epirus CFO Ken Bedingfield, stated, “We are excited to undertake this investment, as we have been watching the rise of militarized drone usage in battlefield for some time. Strengthening our partner ecosystem accelerates opportunities to field innovative solutions to areas with the most pressing needs.”
DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik added, “We welcome Epirus to our investor register. There are significant complementary areas between our companies, including combining DroneShield’s drone detection and soft defeat systems, with Epirus’ hard defeat solutions.”
DroneShield recently was recommended by the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office (JCO) for deployment across U.S. Department of Defense bases within the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) consortium. It also has scored other deployment opportunities with the U.S. Army, European Government customers, and a first U.S. airport deployment, as well as recognition from the Australian government.
The investment comes as drone attacks, like those use in the Russia-Ukraine War, have increased awareness of UAS as a threat.