Intel Corp. has reportedly further increased its sturdy foothold in the commercial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector by acquiring MAVinci, a company making not only UAVs, but also software systems and mapping solutions.
According to coverage from VentureBeat, the 20-employee team at MAVinci, which is based out of St. Leon-Rot Germany, will become a part of Intel’s “UAV segment group,” part of the company’s “new technology group.” The value of the deal was not disclosed.
In October, the California-based tech giant came out with its own Intel-branded drone, the Intel Falcon 8+, an octocopter based on software from Ascending Technologies, a German company Intel had been working with on collision-avoidance technology since early 2015; Intel then acquired the company earlier this year.
Also in 2015, Intel Capital announced a $60 million investment in Chinese drone manufacturer Yuneec. Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, which has also invested in UAV software companies such as PrecisionHawk and Airware, said at the time that “drones have the potential to positively change lives in many ways.” Krzanich now heads the Federal Aviation Administration’s long-term Drone Advisory Committee, which held its first meeting in September.
Among other commercial UAV ventures in recent years, Intel is also working with AT&T on testing how drones can function on a long-term evolution.
Speaking on the brand-new MAVinci deal, Anil Nanduri, who leads Intel’s UAV group, told VentureBeat that MAVinci has “best-in-class mission planning software for terrain mapping” – which, in turn, can help users “very quickly create a mission for a specific job,” such as construction or farming.
