AISPECO went from your idea to a $10M+ acquisition. Looking back, which moments stand out?

There have been plenty of challenges, but I would say our first sales and deliveries were the hardest. We weren’t entirely sure what actually brought value to customers. You think you know your market, but the real learning starts when customers begin using your products. We learned a lot.

Moving to our own manufacturing facility was another challenge. When something goes wrong, there’s nobody else to blame.

I also remember a case in 2022 when a customer experienced serious data issues. Our engineers worked day and night trying to find the problem, and at one point we thought we might have to compensate the customer for the costs of their data acquisition flights, which could have put us out of business. Thankfully, we traced it to a sensor hardware bug and managed to recover the data. But it was a scary experience.

Does the value sit in the sensor hardware, software, or integration? Do you see AISPECO getting into defence?

The value comes from getting everything right. It takes only one problem to make data unreadable or incomplete. Keeping sensors synchronised, transferring data without errors and making sure operators have accurate information can mean the difference between a €5,000 flight that captures €20,000 worth of data and a €5,000 loss.

No hardware ever works exactly as promised. Sensors might work perfectly individually, but once you combine them, unexpected problems appear. That’s where AISPECO’s value lies: making everything work together reliably and repeatedly.

For example, our HELIUX XL system was delivered to Australia for Antarctic exploration missions, where multiple sensors need to operate together and every flight matters because of limited weather windows and challenging logistics.

And yes, we are already working with defence customers, although we cannot announce them publicly yet.

Revenue more than doubled last year. Why sell now, and what does joining Volatus let you build?

We needed a larger industrial base to grow, reach more customers worldwide and expand our capabilities. When we started talking to Volatus and learned about their vision, things clicked.

I am motivated by actually building things, and it became clear that together we could do more, faster. Volatus brings resources, operational experience and market access that would take us years to build independently.

Our founding team is staying and becoming shareholders in Volatus, so we can continue growing the business and share in its future success without further diluting our ownership through additional fundraising.

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