Hangul Computer Group (hereinafter referred to as Hancom Group) has stepped up its drone business competitiveness through successive acquisitions and equity investments in drone specialty companies. Hancom Group, which acquired drone-specialized startup’Asome Tech’ on the 3rd, plans to improve the competitiveness of the domestic drone market by localizing core drone technologies and establishing a drone mass production system.
Asometech, acquired by Hancom Group, is a startup that possesses drone technologies such as drone fall prevention technology and automatic battery management module for drones. The’Smart Parachute Paraglider’ technology developed by Awesome Tech supports the independent flight of the drone and automatic return to a designated point, and helps to unfold a parachute and land safely in case of a fall. Asometech also possesses special-purpose drone development technology, such as UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and URV (special purpose autonomous robot) control device, and fixed-wing and rotary-wing drones. Fixed wing drones are drones with fixed wings similar to ordinary airplanes, and rotorcraft drones are commonly seen propeller-mounted drones.
Awesome Tech’s Smart Parasuit (Photo = Hancom Group)
Hancom Group recently invested in’Sundol Drone’, a first-generation drone manufacturing company in Korea. Sundol Drone is a company that develops drones for each industrial field, such as military, industrial, agricultural, and educational. Currently, it is supplying drones to the army drone training center and to the fire and police. It is evaluated that Hancom Group has secured a number of know-how necessary for drone production through this acquisition and equity investment.
Hancom Group began to expand its drone business in earnest when it acquired Inspace, a domestic space and drone company, in September 2020. Inspace is a company possessing the technology of’Drone Set’, an unmanned automation system, including automatic drone take-off and landing, and wireless charging technology. Now that it has become’Hancom in Space’, it is developing an intelligent drone service platform based on a drone set. Furthermore, it plans to build a smart city in Korea using drones. Hancom Group also unveiled the concept video of the urban traffic and crime monitoring platform using drones at CES 2021, which was held online in January.
Urban monitoring concept data using drones (Photo = CES 2021 capture)
Hancom Group is strengthening the’Drone Value Chain’ through cooperation among affiliates. In addition to the recently acquired Inspace and AsomeTech, various links between Hancom Lifecare’s drone utilization disaster safety service, Hancom Academy’s drone mission training, Hancom MDS’ drone charging business, and Hancom Intelligence’s drone certification business are already being promoted.
Furthermore, it aims to strengthen the self-sustainability of the domestic drone market. An official from Hancom Group said, “At the moment, China dominates the domestic and overseas drone market.” “By continuing to invest and discover domestic companies, we will contribute to securing competitiveness in the domestic drone market.” According to KOTRA’s 2020 Drone Market Report, China’s DJI’s market share in the civilian drone market currently stands at 70%. Another Chinese drone company, Jifei, accounts for 50% of the agricultural drone market.
Meanwhile, according to Market Sand Market, a market research institute, the global drone service market is expected to grow by 55.9% on an annual average from $4.43 billion (about 5 trillion won) in 2019, to $ 6.64 billion (about 71 trillion won) in 2025. In Korea, the foundation for the drone industry is expanding, with the’Act on Promotion of Drone Utilization and Foundation Creation’ in effect from May 2020.