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ASX-listed counter-UAS company DroneShield has sold equity in its business to a US technology company in a bid to raise capital to fund its growth ambitions.
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DroneShield has confirmed it has completed a $3.7 million share placement of 18.5 million fully paid ordinary shares with US technology company Epirus Inc.
Accordingly, Epirus has acquired a 4.1 per cent shareholding interest in DroneShield.
Epirus is a software-defined directed energy systems solutions provider. Its suite of offerings includes Leonidas TM solid-state, software-defined high-power microwave (HPM) technology, designed to enable unmatched counter-electronics effects.
DroneShield is expected to leverage the capital to:
- scale-up ready inventory and long lead items, to rapidly fulfil anticipated orders;
- continue scaling up engineering and operations to support current momentum; and
- fund general working capital.
“We welcome Epirus to our investor register,” DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik said.
“There are significant complementary areas between our companies, including combining DroneShield’s drone detection and soft defeat systems, with Epirus’ hard defeat solutions.”
Epirus CFO Ken Bedingfield noted the importance of the deal amid the emergence of drone technology.
“We are excited to undertake this investment, as we have been watching the rise of militarised drone usage in battlefield for some time,” he said.
“Strengthening our partner ecosystem accelerates opportunities to field innovative solutions to areas with the most pressing needs.”
The capital raise comes just weeks after DroneShield received a $900,000 contract to deliver portable counter-drone systems to an undisclosed government agency in Asia, reportedly “allied with the West”.
This is expected to include provision of the DroneGun MKIII — a compact, lightweight UAS countermeasure solution, designed for one-hand operation.
The system leverages a compact pistol-shaped design with a control panel user interface, allowing operators to select and engage radio frequency disruption frequency modes.
[Related: DroneShield receives counter-drone contract]
