Corporate investor STIHL Digital invests in software startup FlyNex

Hamburg — The tech­no­logy company FlyNex recently closed another finan­cing round worth milli­ons of euros to deve­lop new busi­ness areas and expand its current busi­ness. STIHL’s entry as an inves­tor crea­tes a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship to use drones as tools for data coll­ec­tion and analy­sis in other areas such as forestry and horti­cul­ture in the coming years.

In addi­tion to the new commit­ment of STIHL Digi­tal GmbH, the finan­cing round is comple­ted by invest­ments from HTGF, TGFS (Tech­­no­­lo­­gie-Grün­­der­­fonds Sach­sen), GPS Ventures and Snow­flake Ventures. The repea­ted parti­ci­pa­tion of exis­ting inves­tors in the current round demons­tra­tes the confi­dence in FlyNex to become a leading drone data platform.

As the only plat­form in Europe to date, FlyNex offers holi­stic digi­tal services for compa­nies in seven Euro­pean count­ries, with a focus on the energy supply, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, and cons­truc­tion and real estate indus­tries. In addi­tion to the crea­tion of drone data, FlyNex also offers a compre­hen­sive, seam­less service from consul­ting with the custo­mer through imple­men­ta­tion to the evalua­tion and use of the acqui­red data.

The part­ner­ship with STIHL, known in around 160 count­ries as a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of quality products for forestry, muni­ci­pa­li­ties, crafts, cons­truc­tion and gardening, gives FlyNex the oppor­tu­nity to expand its range to other indus­tries and target groups.

STIHL also sees many advan­ta­ges in the cooperation:
“We have spent a long time looking around the inter­na­tio­nal market for inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons in this area and are convin­ced that we have found the right part­ner with our invest­ment in FlyNex,” says Benja­min Jung­hans, Direc­tor at STIHL Digi­tal GmbH

Both part­ners are convin­ced that they will be able to jointly deve­lop solu­ti­ons based on drone data that will be of inte­rest to many STIHL customers.

“With our end-to-end plat­form, we provide compa­nies with auto­ma­ted drones and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence for data coll­ec­tion and real-time decis­­ion-making. We enable compa­nies to create and process data in a way that only digi­tal aero­space compa­nies can,” explains Andreas Dunsch, CEO of FlyNex.

About FlyNex

Based in Leip­zig, Hamburg and San Fran­cisco, FlyNex is the most widely used soft­ware solu­tion for commer­cial drone projects in Europe. Through its proprie­tary cloud plat­form, FlyNex covers the entire commer­cial appli­ca­tion range for data coll­ec­tion by unman­ned aerial systems. Compa­nies can thus inte­grate drones into their own proces­ses with just a few clicks and, for exam­ple, reduce inspec­tion costs by up to 90%. Foun­ded in 2015, FlyNex is successfully used as a drone manage­ment solu­tion by well-known compa­nies and tech­no­logy leaders in the cons­truc­tion, real estate, energy and avia­tion indus­tries. FlyNex is also invol­ved in Europe-wide inno­va­tion projects for the successful inte­gra­tion of drones, such as for medi­cal trans­port, smart air traf­fic manage­ment or air cab navi­ga­tion. www.flynex.io

About STIHL

The STIHL Group deve­lops, manu­fac­tures and sells engine-powered equip­ment for forestry and agri­cul­ture as well as for land­scape main­ten­ance, the cons­truc­tion indus­try and private garden owners. The range is supple­men­ted by digi­tal solu­ti­ons and services. The products are basi­cally sold through service-provi­­ding specia­list dealers and STIHL’s own online stores, which will be expan­ded inter­na­tio­nally in the coming years — with 41 of its own sales and marke­ting compa­nies, around 120 importers and more than 54,000 specia­list dealers in over 160 count­ries. STIHL produ­ces in seven count­ries world­wide: Germany, USA, Brazil, Switz­er­land, Austria, China and the Phil­ip­pi­nes. — Since 1971, STIHL has been the world’s best-selling chain­saw brand. The company was foun­ded in 1926 and has its head­quar­ters in Waib­lin­gen near Stutt­gart. STIHL gene­ra­ted sales of 4.58 billion euros in 2020 with 18,200 employees worldwide.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds

The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported more than 650 start-ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. More than EUR 3 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,800 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 140 companies.

Fund inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capi­tal, the Fraun­ho­­fer-Gesel­l­­schaft and 32 companies.