Korean drone manufacturer aims for 2023 Kosdaq IPO

South Korea's commercial drone manufacturer Nearthlab plans to apply for an initial public offering this year to get listed on the junior Kosdaq market in the first half of next year, according to people with knowledge of the matter on Thursday.

The startup, with an estimated corporate value of 100 billion won ($84 million), recently hired NH Investment & Securities Co. as its IPO manager.

Nearthlab is seeking a fast-track listing as a technology startup, the sources said.

The startup manufactures autonomous flying drones, which collect data and track defects of wind turbine blades, based on AI-powered algorithms.

It was co-founded in 2015 by CEO Choi Jaehyuk, an aerospace engineering Ph. D of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

Nearthlab has received cumulative investments of over 10 billion won in three funding rounds between 2016 and 2020. Two leading Korean startup accelerators FuturePlay and Bon Angeles participated in its Seed funding in 2016.

Venture capital investors in the company include Stonebridge Ventures, Company K Partners, E & Venture Partners, Nau IB Capital and Breeze Investment.

Its drones perform high-resolution inspections of wind turbine blades and communication towers every 15 minutes and detect minute defects as small as 0.3 mm.

The fly-by drone, equipped with collision avoidance systems, is able to keep a safe distance from facilities and automatically take the full picture of the object.

Collected data is transmitted to Nearthlab's data management platform and then delivered to its clients to help their maintenance and repairs of the facilities.

Germany's Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Ltd., Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems A/S and General Electric Co. are among its clients.

In 2020, Nerthlab was chosen as one of Baby Unicorn 200 by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, or a private company with a value of less than 100 billion won with great potential to reach unicorn status, or a company valued at 1 trillion won or over. 

Write to Jong-Woo Kim at jongwoo@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article