Evolve Dynamics, a Surrey-based drone company which produces mission specific UAV / RPAS (drones) hardware and software solutions for the emergency services, law enforcement and defence sectors, has secured its first significant round of institutional funding which it will use to further product development, R&D and company expansion.
The funding round was led by the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, alongside The FSE Group and an angel investor.
The funds will be used to continue to develop the current and new products in dialogue with the market and customers. Evolve Dynamics’ core product, the Sky Mantis drone, offers customers an industry leading flight time, higher wind resistance than competitors, dual camera payload and extreme weather capability. The company will continue to undertake extensive R&D to maintain the product’s superior performance and ability to retail at highly competitive price points.
In response to strong and rapidly increasing market demand, with inbound orders accelerating, further planned hires will strengthen the operations and engineering functions in order to successfully scale the company and enter new markets where its products offer a strong value proposition, such as the energy sector.
CEO and founder of Evolve Dynamics, Michael Dewhirst, said: “The funding will help us invest into R&D and hardware, as well as new hires and larger premises to scale in response to market demand. We are excited to be backed by the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, FSE and the angel investor, which will help us respond to the opportunities in front of us.”
Founded in 2016, Evolve Dynamics was formed to address the growing need for drone solutions among emergency services and rapid response forces. Prior to the Sky Mantis, budget constraints meant that police forces tended to purchase consumer drones which weren’t up to the standards required of their use cases: inspections, rescue operations, and searches. In its first three years, the Evolve Dynamics team formed relationships with their eventual customers and undertook extensive discovery research and development. This research fed into the design specifications that make the Sky Mantis drone useful and accessible to police forces, whilst meeting various requirements for flight time, durability, portability and price.
Beyond its domestic market, Evolve Dynamics is well placed to scale geographically and capitalise on the significant growth of the global drone market across the commercial, military and civil government sectors. Alongside a concentration on servicing its core market, the company intends to continue R&D and product development in order to ensure that its drone solutions offer versatility across use cases and sectors.
The Investment Director of the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, Helen Reynolds, said: “We are delighted to support the Evolve Dynamics team, who have demonstrated the value proposition of their product to their target market with strong growth to date. We’re very pleased to be helping them scale and expand into new markets. The company has an impressive number of orders already for the next few months and customer satisfaction with the drone’s performance in a range of scenarios has been excellent.”
Senior Fund Manager of The FSE Group, Paul Lyristis, added: “We are delighted to add Evolve Dynamics to our portfolio of companies supported by the Enterprise M3 Growth Fund. Evolve, a Guildford-based company is the UK’s leading manufacturer and supplier of drones and ancillary equipment to this country’s emergency services and we are proud to have invested in a company whose drones have been used to save lives. Michael Dewhirst has put together a highly experienced team and they have all the attributes to build Evolve into a world-class business. We wish them all the best for the future”
