Canadian company ZenaTech seeks to grow with flight school purchase
By DRONELIFE Features EditorJim Magill
A fast-growing Canada-based AI drone and software company is planning to expand its Drone as a Service (DaaS) business by purchasing a flight school in Florida that offers instruction for both Part 107 pilots, as well as for those training to earn Part 61 certifications required to pilot manned aircraft.
Toronto-based ZenaTech said it plans to use the flight school to train the next generation of pilots who hold Part 61 certifications. Such certifications are expected to be required by the FAA to operate drones in the complex BVLOS operations allowed under the proposed Part 108 regulations. The company did not release the details of the planned acquisition.
“We want to use this as a conduit for training,” Phil Franklin, ZenaTech’s vice president of business development for North and South America, said in an interview. “Obviously, we want to bring in commercial pilot training, but we will also want to extend this and create an institution where we can have our internal pilot teams train there for the specific missions that we want to pursue.”
Franklin, who also serves as director of sales and business development for ZenaTech’s Tempe, Arizona-based subsidiary ZenaDrone, said the acquisition of the flight school would help the company create a pipeline of pilots with the necessary certifications to meet the upcoming challenges of the drone industry over the long-term.
“There are quite a few Part 107 pilots that are out there and I typically am engaging them at a pretty large scale. But we want to create a centralized hub where we can deploy pilots from our flight school directly into the field,” he said.
The company selected Florida as the site of its flight school acquisition because the state is considered to be a potential high-growth region for ZenaTech’s expanding line of drone-related businesses.
ZenaTech specializes in providing enterprise software as a service (SaaS) and quantum computing solutions for business applications. Beginning in 2017, the company began leveraging its software development expertise and expanded into drone design and manufacturing through its ZenaDrone affiliate.
ZenaDrone started out developing its own proprietary drones in 2019, focusing on the market for agricultural drones in Dublin, Ireland, Franklin said.
“That got legs underneath us. And from there we started designing what has ultimately led to the 15th version of our existing drone,” he said. The ZenaDrone 1000, the company’s flagship product, combines innovative software technology and custom hardware components to create a drone capable of servicing diverse industries, according to the company’s website.
Currently the company manufactures its drones in the UAE, but plans to move its manufacturing operations to Phoenix, closer to its U.S. headquarters. “We develop, design and manufacture the entire drone from start to finish,” Franklin said.
Originally, ZenaDrone had used third-party parts providers to supply critical components, but has since started developing and constructing its drones using its own motors and propellers in order to comply with U.S. National Defense Authorization Act requirements (NDAA). “And we’re continuing to expand that. With our office in Taiwan, we’ve started developing our own sensors in house,” Franklin said. “So, we’re basically designing everything from top to bottom and doing everything in house ourselves.”
He said this level of in-house manufacturing has allowed ZenaDrone to have greater control over all aspects of its drone production as well as enabling the company to market its products to U.S. government agencies and other customers reliant on NDAA-certified drones.
The company continues to develop new UAVs and related products. Recently ZenaDrone developed an indoor drone, which can be used in warehouses to scan bar codes, replacing the need of having humans perform this task. The company currently is conducting pilot tests of this technology with a multinational auto parts manufacturer in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Company pursues rapid-growth strategy
On the corporate level, ZenaTech had just recently become a public company. On October 1, 2024 it began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol ZENA.
ZenaTech is pursuing a strategy of acquiring companies where it can deploy its drone and software technologies. For example, the company has acquired eight land-survey companies, located in Florida and Oregon, and just within the past several weeks ZenaDrone has completed the development of a land-surveying drone. The company plans to deploy its surveying drones within those companies over the next several months, Franklin said.
“We’ll completely roll in our drones to replace existing drone platforms that are being used by third parties who are performing surveys for our survey entities,” Franklin said. “Being owner-operators of survey businesses as well as other business models, we think we can use drones to fast-track our success in the industry.”
The plan to acquire the flight school is just part of a larger buying binge for ZenaTech. Recently the company has signed 12 letters of intent (LOI) to make corporate acquisitions, mostly focused on the U.S. southeastern states of Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, with one acquisition planned in the northwestern state of Oregon.
The company’s stated goal is to have acquired 25 companies by next June, and to leverage those acquisitions to expand its DaaS business. Among the companies that ZenaTech is looking to acquire are power-line inspection firms. The company also hopes to secure additional deals to work with federal and municipal governmental agencies in the U.S. and to begin offering a building power-washing service in Dubai.
In addition to its operations in the U.S. and Canada, the company also operates through offices in Europe, Taiwan and the UAE.
Although the company is precluded by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from releasing the details of its planned acquisition of the Florida flight school, Franklin indicated that more information on the proposed deal could soon be forthcoming.
“As soon as the ink dries on the contract, that’s something that we’ll be very vocal about,” he said. “Just based on our history of execution of these acquisitions, they don’t typically take us long when we get to the point where I have to go and say ‘Hi’ to somebody.”
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Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.
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