Drone Racing League and Draganfly Form Multi-Year Partnership to Create DRL Labs

The Drone Racing League and Draganfly Inc. announced a multi-year partnership to launch DRL Labs, an innovation hub that will research and develop next-generation drone technology and integrate Draganfly’s AI Vital Intelligence into the 2021-22 DRL World Championship Season. Draganfly is identified in company materials as NASDAQ: DPRO; CSE: DPRO; FSE: 3U8, and the collaboration is framed as both a sporting and applied-technology effort.

PR Newswire and Draganfly press materials carried datelines from New York, Los Angeles and Los Angeles, CA with release dates cited as Oct. 14, 2021 and Nov. 4, 2021, while Webfiles/TheCSE materials reference Draganfly’s integration into the season on October 20, 2021. “The Drone Racing League is built on innovation and the commitment to showcase best-in-class technology to our millions of fans. We're thrilled to partner with Draganfly, who will bring their leadership in drone hardware, software and logistics to our global racing circuit. With the launch of DRL Labs, together we will introduce novel drone technology that will not only redefine our sport, but also provide real world use cases to support communities around the world,” said Ari Mark, DRL SVP, Head of Partnership Development.

DRL Labs’ technical focus areas are explicit: autonomy, next-generation sensors and artificial intelligence. PR Newswire described Draganfly’s Vital Intelligence platform as able to “utilize any camera to monitor pilots’ in-race heart and respiratory-rates,” and added that the platform will drive “new health insights around flying drones and bring fans closer to the DRL action than ever” by analyzing pilots’ physiological reactions to competition, fast speeds and crashes. PR Newswire also noted that “Globally broadcasted DRL races will provide real-time testing grounds for DRL Lab innovations, reaching DRL’s millions of technology-obsessed, tech-setter fans — 60% of whom claim that brands that partner with DRL invest in innovation.”

The partnership explicitly ties broadcast testing to product development. Inside Unmanned Systems quoted Draganfly CEO Cameron Chell saying, “Innovations created by DRL Labs will be tested in real-time in front of millions of fans during DRL’s globally broadcast races.” FreightWaves, recounting the same communications, quoted Chell as saying, “We’re really, really committed to security and education and building an ecosystem that provides physical world solutions for that whole digital universe that’s unfolding before us,” underscoring Draganfly’s intent to translate racing-derived advances into security, education and operational systems.

Sources differ on audience scale but both figures appear in release material: PR Newswire references DRL’s “millions” of tech-focused fans and the 60% partner-innovation stat, while FreightWaves states the DRL “now boasts over 250 million fans worldwide.” Webfiles/TheCSE adds that DRL programming, including the 2021-22 World Championship Season airing Wednesday nights at 8pm EST, and DRL SIM virtual maps will showcase innovations across esports and real-drone races.

The companies framed DRL Labs as applicable beyond sport to humanitarian aid, mobility, agriculture, industrial inspections, mapping and surveying, disaster relief, transportation and delivery, search and rescue, public safety and healthcare. Webfiles/TheCSE material also noted Draganfly’s role with “Draganfly Trophy Truck #32” competing under the name Draganfly and included standard forward-looking statements and risk disclaimers regarding the Sponsorship Innovation Deal. Ari Mark expanded the strategic view in a separate statement, saying competition “is a crucible for accelerated innovation” and that “DRL Labs will be the innovation arm of DRL,” signaling a business model that monetizes R&D through broadcast testing and cross-industry application.