We have advised private equity investor LDC on its investment in Eagle Eye Innovations (EEI), a leading provider of drone training, operating and consulting services.
Headquartered in Lincoln and founded in 2013, EEI provides a variety of services to organisations requiring skilled, regulatory-compliant drone operators across multiple sectors including the built environment, utilities, infrastructure, agriculture, logistics, media, security and defence. It also offers a comprehensive service to assist clients with UK Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) applications, ensuring compliant drone operations in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. EEI’s team of academy instructors and operators have more than 120 years’ combined experience of delivering Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approved training courses and specialist drone operations.
With applications ranging from infrastructure inspection and utilities surveying to precision agriculture and aerial mapping, commercial drone technology is transforming how organisations operate. EEI has scaled rapidly, meeting market demand for regulatory compliant drone operators, securing multi-year contracts with major clients and now employs more than 60 people.
LDC is backing EEI’s management team, led by founder and CEO Siôn Roberts, COO Dom Smith and CCO Alex Kasperczyk, as they expand the business in the UK and internationally, and continue to deliver industry leading drone services across all genres and classifications of drone technology.
More about the process
Our M&A team worked closely with LDC throughout the transaction, delivering a wide range of buy-side advisory services, including market intelligence, exit positioning, valuation support and detailed financial analysis to underpin the investment case.
We also coordinated the wider advisory group and managed a full suite of diligence workstreams, helping to ensure process momentum while navigating complex regulatory requirements. Our work was informed by sector experience across training, operating and consulting services and familiarity with the markets served by EEI, which supported LDC in achieving a successful outcome.
