UAE: Start-up for drone missions wins $100k award

Dubai - EVA aims to connect the world through a network of drone control and charging stations.

A start-up that has built a drone infrastructure — aiming to connect cities and countries — won the $100,000 Sharjah Advanced Industry Accelerator (SAIA) award.

The Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTI Park) presented the award to the New York-founded company Electric Visionary Aircrafts (EVA), which bested more than 550 applications from 50 countries. Other finalists will get value-added services worth $50,000 to scale up their solutions in the UAE market.

EVA is an enabler for drone-applications and is working on connecting cities and countries through the creation of a network of drone control and charging stations.

This drone infrastructure, the firm said, can be leveraged for missions like medical supply and parcel delivery, disaster relief, logistics, and on-demand infrastructure inspection, among others.

The selection for the best startup has undergone intensive deliberations. Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO of SRTI Park, noted: “The last few weeks have been very intense moments evaluating all the solutions and the project pitches.”

“Last year has been a different and complicated year for many and for this reason we value much all the exceptional work and motivation of the finalists and those who submitted their entries for the award,” he added.

The SRTI Park launched SAIA award in March last year, despite all the Covid-19 uncertainties.

Over the course of eight months, more than 550 applications were received, then eight incredibly innovative startups were selected for the programme, which concluded in December.

Olivier Le Lann, CEO of EVA, said Sharjah Advanced Industry Accelerator was the natural choice to embrace the numerous opportunities in the Middle East and beyond.

“We found mentors passionate about sharing their knowledge and helping us to fine tune our customer value proposition,” Le Lann said.

“With SAIA support, we will now move to a full location at Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park with position in management, research and development and business. With this market entry we will deploy faster our advanced integrated drone/robots infrastructure to accomplish critical missions such as autonomous healthcare logistics.”