Accelerating the commercialization of beyond-visual-range autonomous drones, "Anqing Technology" has obtained a new round of financing of several million yuan | 36Kr exclusive.
Author | Lin Qingqing
Editor | Yuan Silai
36Kr has learned that recently, "Anqing Technology" has completed a new round of financing of tens of millions of yuan. The investor is Qifu Capital, and the old shareholder Yuanhe Capital continues to increase its holdings. Gengxin Capital serves as the long-term exclusive financial advisor. This round of funds will be mainly used to improve production and manufacturing, technological research and development, and team building.
"Anqing Technology" was established in 2022. It is a provider of unmanned aircraft traffic management services and equipment with safe and efficient autonomous flight as its core technology. It focuses on providing solutions for low-altitude navigation services. Its main products include SafeSky® unmanned aircraft traffic management software, DroneID™ operation identification tag series, operation identification ground station, DAA beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) autonomous flight intelligent box, BVLOS autonomous flight unmanned aircraft, and unmanned aircraft airports, etc.
In recent years, China has intensively issued relevant industrial policies to boost the low-altitude economy from exploration to development. The low-altitude airspace usually refers to the airspace with a vertical distance of less than 1,000 meters from the ground plane directly below. According to the characteristics and actual needs of different regions, it can be extended to the airspace within 3,000 meters. According to calculations by Xinhuanet, the scale of China's low-altitude economy exceeded 500 billion yuan in 2023, and is expected to reach 2 trillion yuan in 2030. The low-altitude is becoming a new focus of global competition. Countries are actively building unmanned aircraft traffic management systems to provide low-altitude navigation services to unmanned aircraft operators.
The gradual popularization of low-altitude navigation services also puts forward new demands for the avionics system of unmanned aircraft. Traditional remotely controlled unmanned aircraft are constrained by the communication distance of the command and control link and can only fly safely within the visual line of sight. The autonomous flight technology suitable for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) needs to be coordinated with the unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) software used by each low-altitude navigation service provider (USS) to achieve scalable commercial flights.
Liu Ying, the founder of "Anqing Technology", told 36Kr that "Anqing Technology" is one of the few manufacturers in the world with the vertical integration capability of UTM and BVLOS autonomous flight. Its product landing ability for the autonomous flight avionics system can provide UTM software and infrastructure for sustainable and scalable operation for USS manufacturers at home and abroad.
The core of the BVLOS autonomous flight technology lies in "Detection and Avoidance (DAA)", which is one of the key technologies to achieve BVLOS flight. It helps unmanned aircraft fly safely in a complex environment. Through intelligent detection and avoidance technology, unmanned aircraft can identify and avoid obstacles, and at the same time plan the optimal flight route. In addition, the unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) system is the prerequisite and infrastructure for achieving BVLOS autonomous flight. It not only provides services for unmanned aircraft, but also enables the integrated operation of manned and unmanned aircraft in the same airspace. In general, the BVLOS autonomous flight technology expands the operating range and improves the operating efficiency of unmanned aircraft by improving their autonomy, and ensures flight safety through advanced detection and avoidance technology. These are important foundations for the large-scale and commercial operation of unmanned aircraft.
Self-avoidance of other unmanned aircraft based on DAA
Based on this, "Anqing Technology" provides a complete set of low-altitude navigation service solutions for the operational scenarios of BVLOS autonomous flight, including unmanned aircraft traffic management software - SafeSky® unmanned aircraft traffic management software, which meets the requirements of the "Civil Unmanned Aircraft Operation Safety Rules" of the Civil Aviation Administration, supports loading fourteen layers, electronic fence database service, wireless communication signal quality simulation, micro-weather information service, and intelligent route planning. Combined with detection and avoidance technology, it realizes the autonomous and safe large-scale operation of BVLOS unmanned aircraft.
One-stop solution for low-altitude navigation
Unmanned aircraft detection APP based on operation identification and four-dimensional trajectory recording
The proprietary simulation analysis algorithm provides the wireless signal quality between the unmanned aircraft and the nearby base station
Liu Ying, the founder of "Anqing Technology", believes that "The popularization of low-altitude navigation services is the basic condition guarantee for carrying out large-scale BVLOS flights. The underlying logic for navigation services to generate commercial value for operators is to improve their operational efficiency on the basis of safety, which is also the value proposition of fee-based services. Since the vast majority of commercial operators of value-added service objects will conduct BVLOS flights, the vertical technical penetration ability of the unmanned aircraft BVLOS autonomous flight system will be an important watershed for non-homogeneous UTM software."
Currently, "Anqing Technology" has already had the first batch of angel customers, achieved the commercial landing of the UTM system this year, and has started the Pre-A round of financing.
In terms of the team, Liu Ying, the founder of "Anqing Technology", has a comprehensive background in aviation and wireless communication. He previously served as the R & D Manager of the China region of Boeing Research & Technology. The core team comes from leading enterprises and institutions such as Boeing, Honeywell, AVIC, Beihang University, Tsinghua University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
Investor Views:
Fu Zhekuan, the Chairman of Qifu Capital, said: The core team of Anqing Technology has a deep aviation industry background and technical research and development strength, and has in-depth research and an international perspective in the field of unmanned aircraft traffic management services. The company's self-developed series of software and hardware products are precisely targeted at solving the regulatory difficulties and the autonomous intelligent technology difficulties at the aircraft end-side faced by the large-scale, safe, and efficient commercial use of unmanned aircraft. The commercialization progress is smooth, and it has the opportunity to become a market-oriented professional manufacturer in the new infrastructure field of the domestic low-altitude air traffic control system and an innovative BVLOS autonomous flight technology solution company for unmanned aircraft. The favorable policies have catalyzed the rapid development of the low-altitude economy track. We choose to work with Anqing Technology to help realize the early arrival of the era of large-scale, safe, and efficient commercial use of unmanned aircraft.
Zhang Zhengxi, the Chairman of Yuanhe Capital, said: Anqing Technology is the low-altitude economy chain leader company that our Yuanhe Capital led the angel round investment in last September, and we continue to increase our holdings in this round. Anqing Technology was established in 2022. For unmanned aerial vehicles to fly and fly in an orderly manner to truly and effectively serve the high-quality development of the national economy, technologies such as avoidance and beyond visual line of sight are indispensable; technologies such as electronic fences, low-altitude communications, low-altitude route planning, and low-altitude operation big data platform are also indispensable. Anqing Technology is a high-tech startup company that emerged in response to the needs of industry development. It is an indispensable platform-based technology company for the effective operation of the low-altitude economy. Yuanhe Capital's investment in Anqing Technology is another example of our focus on investing in hard-tech companies with world-leading technologies and wide applications. Anqing Technology has completely independent technology and a top-notch team, and it is an excellent startup company that Yuanhe Capital is fortunate to encounter.
Long Xinwen, the Chairman of Zhengling Venture Capital, said: Zhuhai Zhengling Venture Capital is the angel round investment institution of Anqing Technology. We are very pleased to see that the development of Anqing is gradually entering the fast lane. In recent years, Zhuhai City attaches great importance to the development of the low-altitude economy. Xiangzhou District is even more actively building a concept verification and pilot platform for enterprises in the low-altitude economy industrial chain, and actively planning to open application scenarios. Anqing Technology is a beneficiary, and its technical products have thus been quickly verified and mass-marketed. Zhuhai Zhengling also highly appreciates Dr. Liu Ying and his team's understanding of the future, their perception of the market, and their control of operations. Zhuhai Zhengling will continue to support the development of Anqing and firmly believes that Anqing Technology will definitely develop into a unicorn enterprise in the industry.