Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development, a public-public-private fund also known as JOIN, has made a new investment in the drone industry.
Together with Terra Drone, JOIN is providing €10 million (US$10.6 million) in funding to the Belgium-based company Unifly, a prominent unmanned traffic management (UTM) system provider.
Tatsuhiko Takesada, president & CEO of JOIN, commented, “Through its equity participation in Unifly, JOIN expects to contribute to the realization of safe and secure aircraft, airport and port operations, and enhancement of drone operation management. JOIN aims to support the expansion of the use of drones in a wide range of fields and further build its growth in the drone industry.”
Fellow investor Toru Tokushige, CEO of Terra Drone, added, “Our airspace is going to get more crowded than ever. There’s an urgent need for a global traffic management solution to enable safe and efficient drone and [urban air mobility] operations. Terra Drone aims to be the leading player building the digital infrastructure in the sky together with Unifly.”
JOIN was established in 2014 under the administration of then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to help promote Japanese companies’ infrastructure exports. It is about 90% owned by the government.
Unifly was founded in 2015 and has previously won major contracts for its UTM system in Belgium, Canada, and Germany.
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