Latvian Aerones receives €4.4M grant from EU’s Innovation Fund ​

Aerones, a Riga-based company specialising in robot-enabled turbine inspection and maintenance services, has received the Innovation Fund grant of €4,416,000. The startup will use the funds to produce and deploy wind turbine blade leading edge repair robot sets. 

• Founded by Dainis Kruze and Janis Putrams, Aerones’ patented modular robotic solution provides a full suite of inspection (external visual, internal blade, lightning protection, ultrasound), maintenance (painting, ice-phobic coating, blade, and tower cleaning), and repair (leading edge) services. The total budget of the project is
 €7,360,000.
• The company works in more than 27 countries
 worldwide. Aerones mission is to use
its proprietary technology to reduce the complexity and cost of inspections, thus facilitating
 faster global transition to renewable energy.

The deal details:

• The fresh grant was provided by the EU’s Innovation Fund, one of the world’s largest funding programs for the deployment of net-zero technologies. It aims to
decarbonize European industry and support its transition to climate neutrality while fostering
competitiveness.

With the
support of the Innovation Fund, Aerones is committed to deploy state-of-the-art technology to
enhance the wind industry. Our project aims to achieve turbine repairs within 18 hours,
significantly minimizing downtime and contributing to global climate goals. This innovative
approach will lead to a 67% reduction in repair downtime, avoiding 161,349 tons of CO2
emissions over a decade and enabling the production of an additional 918,320 MWh of
renewable electricity.

Dainis Kruze, co-founder & CEO of Aerones, commented.

Grant project contract signing is scheduled for June 2024 after project readiness assessments. We’ll remind, that one year ago Aerones secured $30 million co-led by Lightrock and Haniel.