Company Interview / Contract wins & catching crims

Key points:

RocketDNA supplies WA police with drone-in-a-box systems for immediate emergency responseExpansion into public sector and new contracts for patrol bots at critical infrastructure sites$1 million debt finance facility to drive growth and RocketDNA's focus on integrated solutions

Drone-based services company RocketDNA is selected to supply the WA police with drone-in-a-box systems for their Drone as a First Responder programme. Chris Clark elaborates that these drones provide immediate situational awareness during 000 calls, aiding the police force.

Chris highlights RocketDNA's expansion into the public sector, noting their historic use of autonomous drones in the mining industry. Their technology aims to remove officers from dangerous scenarios and enhance response strategies, optimising public resource use.

Additionally, RocketDNA is deploying patrol bots at critical infrastructure sites, driven by the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act. Chris mentions a $1 million debt finance facility to boost growth and underscores RocketDNA’s unique edge in integrating hardware, operations, and software.

Full unedited transcript:

0:11

Drone based services company rocket DNA has been selected to supply the WA police force with drone in a box systems for the development of its drone as a first responder program. Let's find out all of what's going on at rocket DNA with CEO Chris Clark, who joins me now. Hey, Chris, welcome to the program. Thanks so much for joining us. So what is this drone in a box program that's being and I guess you contributing to in WA.

0:41

Yeah. Nadine, thanks for having me. Yeah. The DFO drone is first responder is a really interesting concept that as you mentioned, is sort of now been released by the WA police, uh, really large, um, sort of concept at a sort of adaptation in the US and now sort of coming to shores in Australia. And essentially the concept really is, is a, it's a complimentary service or using technology as a first responder. To really aid police when they're responding to these 000 calls. So to really kind of give you an idea right now, you know, what is the largest police jurisdiction in the world. And with only 3500 sort of active police officers, it really takes a long time for these police officers to be able to respond to, to all kinds of emergencies. And the idea and the concept behind drones as a first responder is that you're installing these drone in a box units, as you're seeing in the photos there that are placed at police stations. And when A000 call comes in, you actually deploy the drone

1:41

first to the scene. And it provides that immediate situational awareness. Live streaming back the data to the to the officers are responding to the to sort of the incident, and it allows them to be able to see do we need to send through a fire truck, police or an ambulance. And it's really a sort of force multiplier as you will. Well, the future is here, isn't it? So is there any sort of a context to the material impact of this? you know, this, this contract that you've won with WA. I mean, how could it? How big could it get?

2:15

Yeah. Look, it's a really kind of the early stages. And rocket DNA has been selected as one of the, the providers. You know, we've been doing drone on the box autonomous drones for, for quite a while and leveraging that technology with AI predominantly in the mining space. So this is one of our first forays within the public sector. And we're really sort of excited to be part of that. And, uh, and I guess it's, it's, you know, you kind of looking at reports, uh, across the state and across the country where, you know, police are just taking a while to respond or police or being ambushed. And we really just want to be able to, to help and contribute towards how we can remove officers from those, those danger scenarios, as well as provide the public with a an effective response strategy and, and utilization of public resources. Okay. And you've also signed a couple of new contracts for your patrol bots. Uh, explain just shorthand what they are and what these new contracts are for.

3:13

Yeah. So I guess sort of dovetailing out what the work that we're doing within the drone as a first responder space, using the same hardware which you're deploying. But now instead of police stations, you're out putting them out at government or critical infrastructure sites. Um, you know, this has really become quite prevalent since the introduction of the SOC. So the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act, which came out a couple of years ago, which really emboldens, um, you know, these critical asset owners to, to not only protect their assets from cyber security threats, but also the physical security. And what we're starting to see is the need to deploy these autonomous drone systems to provide this sort of security and autonomous and proactive patrolling of these critical assets on a continuous basis, especially of these very large areas where we're human beings are just sort of struggled to cover all at once. Now, okay, that's all good. And you've got $1 million in a unsecured debt finance facilities to help

4:13

propel growth. Like where do you need to invest? What do you need to spend on to to improve some of your financial metrics, because I do know that in the June quarter, you saw annual recurring revenue down. Um, cash receipts were also down and revenue grew just a paltry 1%. So what do you need to do to kick start, you know, real meaningful growth in the company? Yeah. So so there was a half year results and revenue sort of in the comparison to the prior year was up about 15%. So I guess if you're looking, you know, sort of quarterly and quarterly, we continue to build those long term annual recurring revenues. And what's different between rocket DNA and a lot of other companies is I'll focus on these long term contracts. So we don't we don't tend to have peaks and valleys in our in our revenue stream. It's really about this iterative sort of growth that we experience. But once that the revenue is in it, never it never leaves.

5:13

We just continue to build on and bank that. And and the really the reason around the, the sort of the debt facility was um, one of from one of our sort of cornerstone shareholders is, is really sort of helping us execute the current pipeline that we got. Uh, when we when we sort of raised the money, uh, originally it was to build these export units and put them out there. And what we found was in dealing with these enterprise customers is they were looking, you know, for, uh, a lot more in terms of that integration, not only from a software, but from their cyber security standards and safety requirements. And so we needed by ourselves a little bit more time to, to really get those units in there. And so really sort of a great response from, uh, you know, from our major shareholder and uh, and overall, you know, really exciting to, to execute on, on the sales pipeline. So I think overall for the company, um, only good news to follow. Okay. And and how competitive is the space? So you said that you were one of two just for an example that was selected

6:13

with this, um, pilot program in WA. I mean, you know, drones are sort of everywhere now. Um, so I would wonder what sets yours apart in such a competitive landscape. Yeah. You're right. So there's a lot of different providers who might be focused on the hardware element and what sets rocket DNA apart from the rest, is that we're able to to really kind of bring it all together. So not only are we providing that that hardware element, we're doing the the operations or the services element, which is all CAS approved. Um, you know, there's not there's not many operators or if any, especially within the mining space that are doing what we're doing, um, have got the approvals from the regulators to, to operate these drones beyond visual line of sight and remotely from a remote operating center. And then on top of that, it's really the software integration. Um, you know, at the end of the day, we're selling data. It's not really about the drone. It's about the, the, the data that empowers the customer to allow them to make the right decisions at the right time.

7:12

And only when you can combine all these three things together do you have the the, the recipe, you know, or what we call our DNA to, to make a product that, uh, that you can scale and put out there to market. So yeah, a lot of competitors in the individual sensor might sell software, might sell hardware, but uh, but very few if any that actually do all three together.