In 2022, the development of science and technology continues to innovate and upgrade, and the so-called "black technology" is in an explosive period, attracting capital to stop.
Recently, the industrial drone company Kobit completed a 300 million yuan E round of financing, it is worth noting that this company has also been favored by many capitals before, investment institutions include Meihua Venture Capital, Zhongnan Capital, Zhongtai Securities, Xinmei Assets, etc.
The development of unmanned aerial vehicles in recent years is very eye-catching, it is expected that the global market size will reach 42.8 billion US dollars in 2025, with an average annual compound growth rate of 13.8%, of which, especially industrial drones, it contains a blue ocean of potential to be mined.
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Industrial drones out of the loop
As we all know, unmanned aerial vehicles were first mainly used in the military field, and their functions are mostly reconnaissance, enticing enemies, detection, etc., but with the blessing of national policies, the independent development of the industry is active, the technology continues to mature, and the civilian field also shows vitality.
According to public information, the "Guiding Opinions of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Promoting and Regulating the Development of civil UAV Manufacturing Industry" pointed out that by 2025, the output value of civil UAVs in the mainland will reach 180 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of more than 25%.
In terms of subdivision, the consumer-grade drones in the meantime took the lead in running out, it is generally used for aerial photography, etc., under the competition, DJI sat firmly on the head throne and took a considerable market share.
However, the use of consumer-grade drones is relatively limited, to a certain extent, it is difficult for new entrants who are eager to try to grab the cake from the hands of DJI and other head companies, forming a scale advantage, so they have their eyes on the gold rush of industrial drones.
Compared with the penetration of consumer drones, industrial drones are obviously not so popular, but its growth space is indeed full of "dark horse temperament".
Application scenarios will always be expanded, industrial UAV will also become an important part of civilian UAV, generally it will be applied to communication inspection, aerial surveying and mapping, agricultural plant protection, power inspection, forest fire prevention and so on according to different needs.
After all, compared with consumer-grade drones, it is "not afraid of pain, not afraid of tiredness, not afraid of dirty", can be applied to the so-called "Dull, Dirty, Dangerous" operation to improve efficiency, it is expected that the proportion of industrial-grade drones in 2015-2020 from 19.31% to 45.61%, while consumer-grade drones will drop from 80.69% to 54.39%.
Public data show that based on the improvement of the prosperity of both ends of supply and demand, the industrial drone industry is in a period of high growth, the size of the mainland industrial drone market in 2020 is about 27.3 billion yuan, if the market size of this industry is measured at a growth rate of 25%, it is expected that its market size is expected to reach 104.1 billion yuan in 2026.
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Business is not good?
Seeing the predictability of the market, Corbett in this article seized this development opportunity and joined the battle.
Kobit was founded in 2010, according to the official website, has been the merger and acquisition of dozens of upstream and downstream team enterprises, the first to create the world's first industrial-grade unmanned aerial vehicle system industry chain, in order to preempt the market share. Its products include winged tiger M8 PRO, Irison M6, small whirlwind X85 and so on.
Image source: official website
According to public information, at present, the company has set up five major industrial centers in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, Zoucheng, Shandong and Ganzhou, Jiangxi, with Shenzhen as its R&D headquarters, and has become the largest supplier of the State Grid, the only supplier of China's Guodian wind energy inspection, the largest supplier in the field of public security fire protection, the largest supplier of Sinopec, the second largest supplier of China Southern Power Grid, and an excellent partner of Huawei.
While focusing on products, Kobbit is also providing various operational services, including UAV smart power line patrol solutions, UAV smart petrochemical system solutions, UAV smart emergency management solutions, UAV smart public security system solutions, UAV smart aerial survey solutions, etc.
With the further improvement of technology, the continuous penetration of market cultivation, industrial drones have accelerated the pace of development, and many targets have begun to impact the capital market in recent years.
Take Zongheng shares (688070. SH), founded in 2010, focuses on providing overall solutions for industrial drones for users in various industries.
According to public data, in 2019, Zongheng shares accounted for 5.4% of China's industrial UAV market, ranking second; in China's vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing industrial UAV market accounted for 53.8%, ranking first.
In February 2021, Zongheng shares landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, becoming the "first stock of unmanned aerial vehicles" in China, achieving a certain highlight, and the stock price reached a high point of 73.88 yuan on the first day of listing. But the good times are not long, and now, its stock price has shown a downward trend, constantly declining, as of the close of March 17, the stock price was 25.36 yuan, the latest total market value of 2.221 billion yuan.
Image source: choice
According to the announcement, zongheng shares achieved total operating income of 252 million yuan in 2021, down 7.24% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was -20.2177 million yuan, compared with 40.9782 million yuan in the same period last year, and net profit attributable to the owners of the parent company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was -33.2107 million yuan, compared with 32.7773 million yuan in the same period last year.
The reason is that based on the complexity of the macro environment, the epidemic situation is severe, resulting in the delay in signing and delivery of some of the company's projects, which in turn has a certain negative impact on performance.
At the same time, because the market demand for industrial drones has not yet been fully opened, in addition to strengthening its own research and development innovation, the target also needs to invest a certain amount of money to increase market expansion, to a certain extent, the cost of faster year-on-year growth, and the decline in the gross profit margin of some products, have dragged down profits.
It can be found that the development of industrial drones is not smooth sailing, although many companies enter the game first, seizing a certain first-mover advantage, but the current industry standards have not been formally finalized, and there are many technical pain points that need to be solved in terms of core chips, software, sensors, etc., and it is urgent to make up for shortcomings.
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epilogue
Nowadays, with the updating and changing of technology, application scenarios tend to be enriched, and under the common prosperity and development of military and civilian, the UAV market is showing a blowout trend. Among them, compared with consumer drones, industrial drones continue to grab the sight of capital, and the sense of existence is getting worse and worse. At present, many targets have the increase of capital, and there will be more confidence to develop more scenarios to be developed and explore their own way of flying, but it will take time to become a real leader.