Volatus lands in Mirabel

Drone inspection and delivery service provider Volatus is bringing its head office back to Quebec and intends to install it on the Mirabel airport site.

The big boss of Volatus maintains that the move from Toronto to Mirabel will take place over the next six months.

“We are in the final stages of negotiating our location,” CEO Glen Lynch said in an interview. We intend to use the airport site as a demonstration center for our technologies. »

After being established in Montreal in 2019, the head office moved to the Toronto area following the listing on the stock exchange carried out by reverse takeover of an Ontario company three years ago.

Moving Volatus’ head office to Quebec was a condition of obtaining recent $7.5 million in funding from Investissement Québec, says Glen Lynch, although he maintains the company intended to return in Quebec.

The 61-year-old entrepreneur has lived in Quebec for almost 30 years. This resident of Saint-Donat says that Investissement Québec’s resources and network of contacts are invaluable.

A representative of the investing arm of the Quebec state now sits on the board of directors of Volatus.

An “ambitious” objective

The CEO of Investissement Québec, Bicha Ngo, says the funding reflects a desire to contribute “actively” to the development of strategic sectors of the province’s economy.

Glen Lynch specifies that climate change and its impacts on forest fires in particular have created a significant opportunity from which the company intends to take advantage.

“The greatest potential for drones in commercial applications is to assist or replace humans in tasks that are either boring, dirty, or dangerous,” he says.

The company’s co-founder says Volatus’ priority is to achieve profitability by 2025.

The other financial target for next year is to double turnover to 70 million, an objective considered very ambitious by portfolio manager Mathieu Martin, of the Rivemont firm. “I’m a little skeptical,” says this specialist in microcap stocks.

Growing revenue from $35 million to $70 million isn’t as difficult as it might seem at first glance, Lynch said.

“We had capital constraints that limited some of our growth last year and we have a reasonable amount of unmet demand, so we are now well positioned to recover that revenue,” he explains. .

“We have a solid line of sight up to about 55 million. For the last 15 million, that’s not a large percentage of our business that needs to be converted to hit the target. »

The regulatory aspect

Glen Lynch points out that regulations are changing very quickly, which allows Volatus to do more with its technology. “And the technologies themselves are evolving very quickly, which allows us to expand our capabilities. »

And attention to climate change and its impacts is creating opportunities for drones around the world, he adds.

Currently, half of the revenue comes from drone training and sales, and the other half from inspection, imaging and mapping services.

Volatus’ main markets are energy, construction and engineering, while the forestry and agriculture sectors are growing, emphasizes Glen Lynch.

Revenues from freight transportation remain minimal, but the CEO says this activity is expected to grow in importance within three years based on expected regulatory changes and evolving technology.

“The regulatory aspect can actually be a catalyst for the industry if it allows greater potential for use than before,” concedes investment specialist Mathieu Martin.

What will really become more important is the use of larger drones, over a greater distance, well beyond the pilot’s field of vision, and the piloting of more than one drone by a single operator, says Glen Lynch.

“It remains a bet”

Volatus today monitors oil and gas pipelines, looking for threats from encroaching vegetation, faulty signs and construction that could threaten a pipeline.

Glen Lynch explains that flying a helicopter at low altitude over infrastructure can become dangerous for the people on board and for the infrastructure in the event of any malfunction.

“With drones, people are not in danger because there is no one on board and the drone continually assesses its surroundings to identify the safest place to land,” he says.

“The drone identifies corrective actions before a human can even realize there is a problem. And in an environment where there is no safe landing zone, the drone can, with the help of artificial intelligence, sacrifice itself to protect the infrastructure by landing in trees for example. »

Glen Lynch wants to expand relationships with organizations like Hydro-Québec, SOPFEU (Forest Protection Corporation), Canadian National and Rio Tinto.

“Wildfires can threaten electrical infrastructure, but if that infrastructure is not adequately maintained, it can also cause wildfires. Maintenance is important and demand for electricity is set to increase so there are opportunities for us,” he says.

Having made 18 acquisitions since its beginnings in 2019, Volatus presents itself as a consolidator.

The complementary acquisition of Drone Delivery Canada earlier this year allowed Volatus to acquire a technological platform to manage drone operations and position the company with a SAAS, i.e. software-type, model. -service.

“It’s fun to be able to bring a company like Volatus back to Quebec, but it remains a gamble, because there is no history of profitability yet,” concludes Mathieu Martin.