Canadian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) company Draganfly Innovations Inc. has been acquired by TRACE Live Network, developer of the TRACEr1, a camera that autonomously follows its user and live-streams footage to the Internet.
Founded in 1998 and based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Draganfly is the longest-running manufacturer of multi-rotor helicopters and provides products for fields including law enforcement, search and rescue, agricultural mapping, industrial inspection, and aerial photography.
The entire Draganfly development and engineering team, led by Zenon Dragan, founder and president, will remain in the Saskatoon headquarters. Dragan will continue to lead Draganfly and will also join the TRACE executive team.
Post-acquisition, TRACE will look to scale the existing Draganfly commercial small UAV business. The combined engineering teams will collaborate on the further advancement of the TRACE Live Network auto-follow devices and live-streaming platform. They will also initiate the development of several commercial applications for TRACE's SmartCamera technology.
‘Draganfly Innovations is undoubtedly one of the most respected organizations in the commercial UAV space, and we see huge scope for growth – not only within the company's existing business, but through integrated applications of Draganfly UAVs with TRACE's visual intelligence tracking technology,” says Cameron Chell, co-founder of TRACE. “We're incredibly excited to scale out Draganfly to service a wider market and put the expertise within our teams together to collaborate on some groundbreaking and potentially life-saving new products.’ 
