EDGE Group High Lander Universal UTM Investment: The UAE based leading defence company, the EDGE Group, Tuesday announced a strategic investment in High Lander. The Tel Aviv based High Lander is an air traffic management company which offers Universal UTM, a drone-agnostic unmanned traffic management solution. The Universal UTM provides automation, coordination, and safety much needed in increasingly crowded skies, the defence company said in a statement.
According to the company statement, the US$14 million investment creates a ground-breaking partnership and is already forging ongoing deals and high-value opportunities in both the military and civilian domains between some of the world’s biggest technology providers, as both companies progress along their respective roadmaps.
Faisal Al Bannai, Chairman of the Board of EDGE, said as EDGE grows rapidly, and with our focus increasingly being directed to the development of world-leading autonomous aerospace solutions, the need for a superior and readily available air traffic management platform could not be more urgent.
Alon Abelson (L) Mansour Al Mulla (C) Ido Yahalomi (R).
“Today’s operating environments require the most advanced unmanned air traffic control systems, and High Lander provides the only truly universal solution for this critical requirement. Our investment in High Lander as a major shareholder is logical for EDGE, and mutually beneficial and opportune for both companies, allowing us to grow and perfect these solutions further together, in both the military and civilian domains,” Faisal Al Bannai said.
The UAE based defence group said that as a part of its international growth strategy, EDGE, which comprises a portfolio of 20 complementary companies, is placing a clear focus on the development of autonomous systems, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), smart weapons, and cyber technologies.
The defence company said it was keen to further assist High Lander in developing its next-generation Universal UTM solution, which enables the safe coexistence of manned and unmanned aviation. EDGE aims to utilise Universal UTM in the management of autonomous operations.
High Lander’s Universal UTM.
Alon Abelson, co-founder and CEO of High Lander, commented said the company was excited about the strategic partnership with EDGE because it strengthens High Lander’s position as a market leader in drone fleet management and UTM spaces as the company begins to scale globally.
“High Lander and EDGE have a mutual goal of creating the most technologically advanced airspace automation systems possible, and we look forward to working with EDGE for many years to come,” Alon Abelson added.
High Lander’s Universal UTM oversees the busiest airspaces, enabling multiple, simultaneous drone operations. From pre-flight authorisation to mid-mission changes and post-flight logs, Universal UTM enables efficient management of all aspects of airspace control.
Mansour Al Mulla, Managing Director and CEO of EDGE, said High Lander was a growing tech company with huge potential, operating with a startup mindset yet drawing from decades of experience in the aviation sector.
“This, coupled with the highest levels of innovation, has allowed it to create an opportunity in the autonomous air traffic sector, a sector which is in pressing need of transformation. This is a win-win partnership. High Lander will benefit from EDGE’s offerings of integrated systems and solutions, and we in turn will adapt High Lander’s world-leading UTM platform to further advance our autonomous capabilities,” Mansour Al Mulla said in a company statement.
Universal UTM Mobile Application.
Ido Yahalomi, co-founder and CTO of High Lander, said the investment was a hugely significant partnership that gave High Lander the resources necessary to advance its technology and platform on a much wider scale, positioning the company at the forefront of the C2 and UTM sectors relating to drones.
“EDGE is a world leader in aerospace technology, and the fact that we’ve been selected for this investment is testament to the quality of our product,” Ido Yahalomi added.
In November 2021, an Indian defence company, Paras Defence and Space had partnered with Israeli drone technology provider High Lander launched High Lander’s Universal Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) product in India.
Universal UTM from High Lander is a airspace control management system that offers a UTM solution for managing increasingly crowded skies and enables efficient management of all aspects of airspace control with concept of universal integration of diverse autopilots.
High Lander’s Indian offering in partnership with Paras Aerospace has been designed to provide Beyond Visual Line of Sight traffic management in India.
