Latvian Robotics Firm Aerones Secures €50M Investment & Eyes Global Expansion

Latvian robotics firm Aerones is betting on rapid growth despite currently operating at a loss, fueled by over €50 million in funding secured last year – one of the top 20 largest funding rounds for a European startup. The company’s founder and CEO, Dainis Krūze, emphasizes a shift in mindset as key to future success.

Gundars Rēders: Robots servicing wind turbines globally. Over €50 million in funding secured last year. The largest amount in Latvia and one of the top 20 funding rounds in Europe for a startup. How did you convince investors to invest in a company that isn’t yet profitable?

Dainis Krūze: “Aerones is a truly unique company. Who would have thought that Latvia would become home to the world’s most innovative and best robots for wind turbine servicing? We are unique because, in the field of robotics, we have no competitors. There are many larger companies than us that have also tried to develop robots for wind turbine servicing. Latvian engineers surpassed them. We built robots that are currently working in more than 20 countries. We succeeded.”

Do you currently have no competitors?

There are several companies trying to compete by developing products similar to ours, but none have succeeded. Latvian engineers, Latvian people, have succeeded where others have not. And that’s what sets us apart. We are unique, and the market is huge.

How does the work with the robots actually happen?

A single wind turbine blade can reach 100 meters in length. Imagine yourself hanging on a rope, grinding, painting, and laminating it. The work is not only extremely dangerous but also unproductive. All industries have been robotized. The wind generator industry hadn’t been. We were the first to achieve the ability to do this work with a robot.

However, your initial annual reports, for 2023 and 2024, did not show a profit, yet investors have placed their trust in you.

The market is enormous. All of our clients are multi-billion dollar companies, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers and energy conglomerates. They don’t just operate in France or Germany and Italy. If they transition from human labor to robotics, you need to be able to provide this service globally. Our responsibility is to grow rapidly, to grow quickly, which also requires significant financial resources.

Does that mean you will become profitable when you are large enough?

Yes, it’s a business off scale. We need to be large to become profitable. We could stop, slow down development in new product areas if we were willing to grow by 10% per year, we could become profitable, but our ambitions are much greater. Our opportunities are to grow by 30, 40, 50, perhaps even 100% per year.

When Aerones was founded, what was the initial idea? What did you want to start?

The idea of Jānis Putrāms, the company’s co-founder, was that there were many helicopters and many small drones in the air, but something in between was needed. We needed high-power drones capable of delivering goods and doing all sorts of work. Then Jānis Putrāms, Andris Dambis, and I decided to build such a drone. From 2015 to 2017, we did it. This drone was able to lift 200 kg and was the most powerful drone in the world. But it was too early. The world didn’t understand our ideas yet. We wrote to America. We wrote to Germany. We were going to be a company that delivers goods with drones, but we didn’t get a response because nothing like that existed yet. That industry simply didn’t exist.

You filmed a video for advertising purposes in which a person parachutes from your drone.

Yes, Ingus Augstkalns came up with the idea to parachute.

And that’s proof that it can withstand at least one hundred kilograms?

Yes, and proof that it could be a means of transport for people in the future. This drone had 26 propeller motors. It was built so that hitting any part with a hammer would still allow it to fly. But that industry didn’t exist, and we didn’t know how to create a future for this invention. Then we went down a different path. At that time, I told the Latvian Ministry of Defense that drones would change the course of war. We could use these drones to deliver ammunition, rescue the wounded, and so on. The ministry said no at the time.

In what year was that?

I think it was 2016/2017. We weren’t heard, but we know where the war in Ukraine has ended up.

But in 2019, you participated in a Latvian ministry program where you received a grant for the production of trailer equipment specifically for this drone.

Yes, we even made a demonstration that drones could lift observation systems, and we demonstrated that, but it didn’t yield the desired result.

The project ended successfully, but there was no follow-up. Why?

You can’t find good engineering solutions for €20,000 if you want to involve high-level engineers and build such technology.

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, such a heavy-duty drone is vitally needed. Are you ready to offer something like that? Have you been asked?

Jānis and I did a lot during the second invasion to help Ukrainians, both with software and with drones, but unfortunately, Aerones had already changed its direction to robotic servicing. We had several hundred employees and investor-attracted investments with the intention of working in wind turbine servicing. We couldn’t go back to the drone industry. Unfortunately, that was the case.

And how did you get to wind turbines and robots?

It’s a story about needing four years to find a real problem and a market. In 2015, we built a drone and looked for where to apply it, but nothing worked out. Then Jānis came up with the idea of making a firefighting drone. We built it, but to fly it in cities, we needed permits and pumping systems. And again, what is the market where we will fit in? There was quite a feeling of determination.

Literally at the last exhibition in England, where we showed demonstrations of how our drone could fly and extinguish high-rise buildings, one man came up to us and said, “I am a helicopter pilot, and I clean wind turbines from that. You can do that with your drone.” We left the exhibition. Jānis and I looked at each other and realized that no one would be interested in flight permits if we did it in wind farms, which are remote. We had found an area where we could operate, and finally, someone would answer our emails. We started making a prototype that could wash wind turbine blades.

Later, we realized how difficult it was to paint these blades with a drone, and Jānis offered solutions with ropes, where, by placing three ropes, we hold the drone straight. We did it, but then he calls me and says, “Dainis, we don’t need a drone. Let’s put a robot instead, which will eliminate the need for flight permits.” That’s December 2018.

The funniest fact in the whole story was that the company was on the verge of bankruptcy and the only salvation was European co-financing worth two and a half million euros, which we had secured.

In January, we were supposed to sign a document to receive the grant for a drone solution for washing and maintaining wind turbines. We realized that we weren’t going to build a drone, but we went to Spain to sign it anyway.

I have never prepared for any presentation in my life as carefully as this one. After signing the document, we asked for 15 minutes to show our idea. It was a presentation about how we went from drones to the idea of a robot. All two and a half million in funding was for a drone. They asked us to leave. We came back after 15 minutes, and they said, “Please continue!” We asked – what does that mean? Do we need to write a new application? Their answer was no. They liked the new idea much better. And here I want to mention how well the bureaucratic issues were resolved. They gave us the grant and took care of the paperwork themselves.

A good example of bureaucracy?

Yes, it’s a good example of bureaucracy. And they will earn that money back many times over.

Two and a half million then, before that another 30 million. More than 50 million euros this year. Your company is now owned by a US company?

The US company owns both us, the employees, and the investors. It’s not that the company belongs to outside parties. In principle, the US company belongs to Jānis and me.

According to registration papers, we found several related parties. You and Jānis Putrāms, then there’s Andris Bērziņš, or the Latvian Fund. Was the Latvian Fund one of the first to invest?

The Latvian Fund was the first, and it’s important to mention that it was the beginning of the Covid time. We transitioned from drones to robots. We built the first robot. We have the first pilot projects and clients. We were supposed to go and demonstrate the robot, but Covid hit, and all European pilot projects stopped in one day. At that moment, Andris had the opportunity to wait. To say that we would wait. We were on the verge of bankruptcy again, but Andris said no and invested funds so that we could move forward.

Nigel Clauss and Philipp Gera – two more investors.

Nigel is from Lightrock. It’s a fund from Liechtenstein. They are based in London, but from the Liechtenstein royal family, which are the main investors in this fund.

Philipp Gera. Another investor.

Philipp represents a multi-billion dollar fund based in Germany. Now there are new investors. They come from America. The goal of this round was to get an investor in America. We have enough investors and help from Europe. We specifically wanted American investors.

When such large sums are invested, there is an equally large risk that you may fail. How do you, as founders, retain control? What are the conditions that allow you to maintain control?

The investor’s idea is not to work themselves. They invest in people who do. They invest in the belief that the company will succeed. The best manager is the person who created the company and is passionate about their idea.

Do you and Jānis have a controlling stake?

We don’t have a controlling stake, but we are on the board. We are in the company’s management. We run the company together with our management team. We are co-owners. The controlling stake now belongs to the investors.

The goal is to start making a profit?

Yes, after this investment, the goal is that we have to start making a profit within 18 months. The goal is to achieve profitability, but if the company is doing well and successfully, and additional money is needed for growth, then these large funds can provide it without searching for additional money. And that’s an advantage of large funds and large partners.

When we invited you at the end of last year, you were in the United States. I understand that Aerones is now establishing a presence in Texas.

We’ve had a presence in Texas for three years now. We work in America and have more than 100 employees there. We moved from smaller premises to premises three times larger because we are now growing rapidly in America.

Many companies don’t emphasize where they come from, especially those not from prestigious economic countries. Why has it been important for you to say that you are from Latvia?

It sounds cliché, but Jānis and I are Latvian patriots. I am extremely proud that Latvian engineers developed this robot. We have so much to be proud of. Is Latvia perfect, fluffy, beautiful, and is everything perfect? No. Is Aerones perfect, fluffy, and beautiful? Also no. There are a million things that need to be fixed, things I know about that break my heart. Latvia is a good country, and I work, and my company, my colleagues, work to make Latvia not just a good country, but a great country, and we bring the name of Latvia to the world.

The US has a large market. The Trump administration has repeatedly said, “The Green Deal is harmful to the economy. We will change it.” Just now, there’s also news about a large wind farm project being halted. Does this affect business development at the moment?

Our business is to service existing wind farms.

What are your feelings about the future?

When we started looking for funding and secured these €50 million, Trump announced that wind was the worst thing in the world and that he would destroy it. The next day, after this announcement, we started going to investors and telling them how good the wind is. We changed the presentations, proving that even if new wind turbines are no longer installed, we can still double our turnover and growth for the next 20 years.

Even if new wind turbines are no longer installed tomorrow, we can still double our turnover and growth for the next 20 years.

Wind is absolutely green. The greenest energy in the world. No harm is done to nature. It’s an electric motor that is rotated and generates electricity.

There are many arguments – yes, it’s cheap, the infrastructure is expensive. Problems with turbine blade utilization and so on.

Today, blades are made of fiberglass and contain carbon fiber inside. The life cycle of a wind turbine blade is twenty-five years. There are also technologies that recycle and restore all new blades. And the harm of burying old blades is much less than using fossil fuels.

In Latvia, there is still a lot of discussion. There are many arguments – subjective, objective, justified, unjustified. Even political parties say that it’s a chase after gold with a golden dollar and nothing more. Your comments.

Whatever you do, someone won’t like it. There used to be no wind turbines, and now there’s a feeling that a skyscraper has been built. And how will it look now? I understand that. It’s impossible to please everyone. Believe me, Aerones also steps on the toes of many people working in this field. We were also told that robots are bad and take jobs from people. In reality, robots do the job more efficiently, safely, and faster. This allows the work to be done, not postponed, or not done at all. We could all not drive to work by car. I don’t like the sound of the highway. Maybe we could walk. If we look at statistics, Latvia’s GDP per capita is €23,000. Let’s look at Finland. Finland has the largest artillery in Europe. It has one of the largest military capabilities in Europe. Why is GDP per capita twice as high – €50,000. Finland has 2,000 turbines for 6 million inhabitants. We have 100 turbines. We should have 20 times more turbines, at least grow ten times – to about 1000 turbines.

The question is where and how to build them? Greens also say that you can build, but not in the forest.

Why not in the forest? No one lives in the forest. Forests are less densely populated. There is so much land that is uninhabited and where we won’t even know that wind turbines are there. Estonia has a smaller population but twice as many turbines. Lithuania has three times as many turbines. Latvia is in a unique situation. Sun in summer, wind in winter, hydroelectric power plants. We can be the first country in Europe that is fully green. Renewable resources and wind energy cost plus or minus twice as much as gas energy.

But the greens will say, “Only not at the expense of the environment.” What about bird migration routes and deforestation?

Cats kill 90 times more birds than wind turbines. High-rise buildings also kill them. Birds fly into them. But have wind turbines destroyed the entire bird population in Germany, Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania? I haven’t heard that Lithuania has run out of birds.

You say that Latvia is a wonderful place. We see our economic indicators, and we also see our startup ecosystem indicators. The latest figures show that our two neighboring countries are in first and second place in Eastern Europe. We are only fourth, but in the world, 49th. Let’s say, among developed countries, there is nowhere to fall further. Why is that?

It’s exactly the same wind turbine story. As long as we think, debate, and discuss, look for 100 reasons why not. We will look for them. We will focus on those 100 reasons why not. (..) Switching back to startups. It’s exactly the same mentality that Latvians focus more on why not than yes. If you have an idea, if you want to do something, don’t listen to those who say why not. Just find one “yes” and go forward. There needs to be a change in mentality. (..) Estonians were lucky with Skype. Skype shook up young people and motivated them to create startups. Lithuanians, on the other hand, are simply different, they are a warrior nation. They go and do. We have always had a mentality of looking at what the Estonians are doing, what the Lithuanians are doing, and somehow sneaking up from behind. That needs to change. I hope that Aerones, Printify, Printful, and Origin will serve as an example that Latvia can also do it.

How many employees do you have? Where do they come from, how do you find them?

In total, we have about 200 employees in Latvia, of whom about 100 are involved in product development. These are programmers, electronics engineers, mechanical engineers. All this is in Riga, Katlakalna Street. Then we have a factory where we prototype robots. We can quickly make what we invented today – we can test it after a week. We have wind turbine blades that hang and on which we test the prototype. Here we manufacture robots. We send them to America, to Europe, and here we also have an academy. There is also one in America, where we train robot operators. We are the first in Latvia to train future robot operators.

We are robbing young people of future opportunities to create products, build new startups in the school system, because we have four literature classes and one math class.

A young person’s future is ruined already in primary school, allowing them to choose the easy path in fifth grade. We don’t need to grow that level so that everyone is an Olympiad winner. Artificial intelligence will lower the bar with which you can develop a product. You will no longer need a mega-smart programmer to program your idea. It will be easier to do it all over the world, but it won’t be done by literary scholars and graduates of literature classes.

You said in an interview that even if there is a wonderful, perfect engineer with the best brains, he often won’t do anything and there will be no result. Why do you think that?

It’s another mentality question. Startup life is hard. We are not yet a profitable company, but only 3 to 5% of all those who try survive. It’s a difficult path, but at the same time, when you realize that you are building a product used by the world’s largest companies, which have tried to make it themselves but haven’t been able to, and we have outcompeted them. I think it’s worth it.

If large leading companies see that you are succeeding, are you ready to sell this business completely at some point?

I think there are several paths. One is to go bankrupt, but we are doing everything possible to prevent that. The second path is to be bought by a larger company. The third path is to build something bigger. Those are my ambitions – to build the world’s largest wind turbine servicing company, which is an even bigger business than installing new turbines.

Is that realistic at the moment?

Yes, of course. I only have one plan. The world’s largest wind turbine servicing company. Investors, of course, have their own thoughts if it doesn’t work out. I’m going for the big goal, and my colleagues are helping me too.

The creator of the startup ranking has mentioned what the two main challenges are for the entire industry right now. The first is artificial intelligence, which is coming and changing everything very quickly. The second is the geopolitical situation in the world, which is moving from globalization to fragmented bloc formation. Do you see that right now?

Of course, that worries me. It is possible that competition will start between America and Europe.

What about China?

We haven’t gone to the Chinese market yet. We haven’t mastered even 1% of the American and European markets. I don’t hide the fact that I would like to do that. I would like to enter the Chinese market. The first robots are in some factories in China. We are watching what is happening there with one eye.

How does that fit with the fact that America is asking that your technologies be certified?

We perform wind turbine inspections with drones we built ourselves. These things happen in business, you have to be prepared for such turns. I don’t believe that America will completely stop cooperating with Europe. That’s why we are also an American company with our branch there.

The Ministry of Economy and the government say they want to double the Latvian economy.

That won’t be possible without energy independence. If Aerones becomes a multi-billion euro turnover company in the next ten years, that will already be a very big impact on the Latvian economy.

Are the goals of the Ministry of Economy and the government achievable at the moment? And what would be your wish to raise the Latvian economy to a new level?

You just have to believe and do. You have to stop complaining. You have to stop telling the country that everything here is bad and we can’t do anything and nothing will work.

We can, we know how. Aerones is one small proof, but there is more proof that it is possible.