Drone-based aircraft inspection specialist Donecle has received €10 million ($11.7 million) in new capital investment to drive international expansion and further its artificial intelligence (AI) technology development.The funding round was jointly led by French private equity firms IRDI Capital Investissement and SWEN Capital Partners, with the participation of venture capital and investment firms GSO Innovation and ARIS Occitanie.According to Donecle Co-Founder and CEO Matthieu Claybrough, the new round of funding will give Donecle “the resources to scale up internationally,” with a specific aim of expanding in Europe and the U.S., including through strategic partnerships and targeted acquisitions. 

The company raised around $6 million in new funding in 2024 to support a future U.S. subsidiary in Chicago, and Claybrough tells Aviation Week he expects this to open around October with an initial team of five.Donecle says it plans to hire around 10 additional staff in the coming months and continue investing in AI. When it comes to drone-based aircraft inspections, AI comes into play after a drone performs a visual inspection, flying around an aircraft and taking photos of its exterior. The AI can be incorporated into a drone provider’s software to help a human inspector detect potential defects and damage.At MRO Europe 2024 in Barcelona, Claybrough told Aviation Week that AI is good at finding small defects, such as cracks and lightning strikes, so it can be combined with human inspector findings to get “the best of both worlds.”He said the company is now looking at how AI could automatically remove “the easy images” from drone-based inspection results to reduce technicians’ workload. Donecle is collaborating with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and aligning milestones with the technology to the regulator’s AI road map.

The company is also working with AkzoNobel to develop AI models to detect, track and predict the evolution of small paint issues or coating defects. Claybrough said new capabilities in this area will be announced at MRO Americas.Since its founding in 2015, Donecle now operates more than 40 drones in 15 countries with customers such as DHL, LATAM, United Airlines and several military air forces. Its technology has been certified by Airbus, Boeing, the FAA and EASA.