Since we founded Operva AI in November 2020, our mission has been to democratise drone technology adoption across industries. We started off providing inspection services using drones for façade inspection. Thanks to our team's complementary skill sets in artificial intelligence, drones, and the inspection domain, we were able to develop our own solution to optimise the process.
However, as a new startup formed during the pandemic, it was a challenge to find customers and partners. It was during this time that we found out about BEAMP.
We learned that one of the participating construction companies, China Construction (South Pacific) Development, was already using drones for construction progress updates and data analytics. The time-consuming and laborious nature of this process led them to seek a better solution through BEAMP.
We felt this was our time to shine. We had the makings of a solution that would properly address this challenge. Through our participation in the programme, we got to collaborate with China Construction and build an automated drone photogrammetry application. Powered by AI and machine learning, the application shortened and simplified the data collection process.
This is now our flagship product - Airpland. The cloud-based platform empowers pilots and enterprises to fly drones autonomously, visualise maps and 3D data, as well as access the drone talent network. With Airpland, pilots, building owners and managers can come together and collaborate easily on realistic inspection data, in images or 3D model, monitor construction progress, create and share reports.
We are grateful to China Construction’s Senior BIM Manager Rob Sanchez and his team, whose feedback proved crucial to the development of the app. In just five months, we built a user-friendly mobile and web app that could help automate the construction firm’s current process by creating automated flight plans and minimising human intervention. This also freed China Construction’s drone pilots to focus on other tasks.
Apart from helping us add to our product portfolio, BEAMP gave us an opportunity to update our R&D capabilities, gather valuable feedback and pain points from customers, and boost the credibility of our platform. Since then, we have seen a significant increase in business enquiries, and our revenue is expected to increase many times over.
The great introductions made possible by BCA and Enterprise Singapore during BEAMP have also opened doors for Operva AI, and transpired into many wonderful parts of our growth story. We have built upon those connections and are continuing to gain further traction. We have now worked with a growing list of reputable companies such as Holiday Inn, GuocoLand, China Construction, Penta-Ocean, CBRE, Chye Joo, CapitaLand, and IBM.
Having enjoyed some success locally in Singapore, we are now working toward bringing our solution to overseas markets, starting with Vietnam.
Chris Chua
Co-founder, Operva AI
If you are interested to get in touch with our Innovators, please reach out to beamp@padang.co
