Global energy services provider, Swire Energy Services (SES) has announced the investment in wind O&M technology start-up, BladeInsight. The deal will see SES obtain a majority shareholding, with options for further future investment.
Founded in 2015 by André Moura, BladeInsight is a Portugal-based technology company providing the wind sector with cloud-based O&M asset management software and autonomous drone robotic solutions for wind turbine blades. Through its licensees, BladeInsight currently services the wind markets in Europe, North and South America.
This is the first investment in Swire Energy Services history that will see a stake investment in a technology company exclusively servicing the renewable energy industry. The investment forms part of the long-term strategic development for SES in its growth path into the renewable energy sector.
Sabine Weth, VP Offshore Wind for Swire Energy Services commented on the announcement, “This investment marks our first in the wind industry and is testament to the commitment and work by André and his team. We have been incredibly impressed by the technology and are thrilled that the management team share our vision and strategy for the future development of the company.
We see this investment as an opportunity to leverage the advanced drone technology and data platform to support the development of specialised and highly cost-efficient services in the offshore wind industry going forward. As part of our long-term strategy, supported by our parent company John Swire and Sons, technology will form an integral aspect of SES developing a sustainable business that can support our customers through the energy transition and beyond.”
The investment by SES will enable BladeInsight to further develop its software and hardware technology solution to support customers across the wind market. BladeInsight will also benefit from SES global presence across 28 countries, allowing for further geographical expansion.
Andre Moura, CEO and Founder of BladeInsight said “With this investment, we establish ourselves on the next level of scale and value delivery for our customers, offering inspections and digitalization solutions to optimize O&M onshore and offshore, with a truly global outlook. We share with SES common values and an ambitious vision for the wind industry, in which technological innovation will play a pivotal role.”
About Swire Energy Services
Swire Energy Services is a global provider of services supporting the energy industry. Operating in 28 countries and employing over 500 staff globally, people are at the centre of our business. We provide a wide range of value and performance driven solutions including offshore containers, integrity services, aviation services and offshore wind O&M services. Supported by our global experts we strive to be the easiest company to work with, bringing smart connected services to our customers.
About Bladeinsight
BladeInsight develops technological solutions which provide visibility over the state of wind turbine blades and actionable insights for more assertive decision-making on blade maintenance, leveraging robotics and data analytics on a cloud platform, driving down the cost of blade O&M. These solutions include an O&M asset management platform for the full lifecycle of the wind turbine as well as an autonomous drone inspection solution, for safe, cost-effective high quality inspections.
Based at Incubadora TagusPark in Oeiras since its founding, initial investors included Innoenergy, WavEc, Katapult Accelerator, Betwixt Ventures, [EDP Venture?]. In 2018, BladeInsight was awarded an EU Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase II (Innovation) Grant.
