First close of a targeted €6 million Series B investment

• “This next round of investments shows trust in our expansion and the ambition of making airports safer, and protecting nature.”
• Through follow-up investment, current and new investors show commitment and confidence in the company.
• Clear Flight Solutions continues to revolutionize bird control with its Robird™.

Enschede, December 2017 – Clear Flight Solutions has raised €2.6 million from AERIUM Analytics Inc. in Calgary, Canada and the Cottonwood Euro Technology Fund. This investment, the first close of a targeted Series B investment of €6 million, allows Clear Flight Solutions to further strengthen its purpose to save, preserve and protect both nature and people by revolutionizing bird control through its unique technology and services. With the Robird™ as its backbone, Clear Flight Solutions’ bird control operations continue to be highly efficient and offer unmatched effectiveness to airports, oil & gas, dredging and agriculture worldwide. A large share of the new investment will go towards the North American expansion as well as to support its continued operations in the US and Canada. Additionally, Clear Flight Solutions plans to use another sizable portion for the Robird 3.0, a fully autonomous version of the well-known robotic bird of prey that will be smarter, more effective and more efficient.

Successful year
This investment follows a highly successful year for Clear Flight Solutions. The company has set several world’s firsts, including the first ever full integration of drone flights within daily operations at major international airports together with Canadian partner AERIUM Analytics. At Edmonton International Airport in Canada and another, undisclosed, European airport the Robird™ has currently made over 500 flights on airside within a three-month period. Well over 15.000 birds have recently been chased away from active runways using Robirds™ and additional bird control solutions, dramatically reducing the risk of bird strike incidents at these airports. Furthermore, the company is working on protecting birds in the Oil Sands region of Canada, and over the last two years has run an extensive bird control operation on a major offshore project of Van Oord, one of the world’s largest dredging companies.
Trust and ambition
“This investment comes at a perfect time”, says Nico Nijenhuis, CEO of Clear Flight Solutions. “As a company we have reached major milestones this year. Our revenue is rapidly growing and has well surpassed the €1M threshold this year. This next round of investments shows trust and offers us the opportunity to continue our expansion and the ambition of making airports safer, and protecting nature.”
“We want to further commit to and show our confidence in the company through this follow-up investment”, says Ray Quintana, General Partner of the Cottonwood Euro Technology Fund. “In our opinion aggressive growth can only be achieved by new follow-on investments in Series B, C and D rounds. Cottonwood is very excited to play a part in the continued growth and success of Clear FlightSolutions.”