CEO Insights Magazine

In terms of ease of doing business, Australia stands ahead of different countries owing to its endowment of a favorable environment for starting a business in terms of credit acquisition, contracts enforcements, trade policies, better lifestyle, and business growth. Famous for its flora and fauna, as well as its vegetation, climate, and weather, Australia has evolved to the best suitable and most desired business destination for Indian entrepreneurs. Regarded as one of the easiest places in the world to conduct business, Australia has not only become the most popular destination for Indian entrepreneurs and business owners but also their permanent residence. One such persona is Rakesh Routhu (Co-Founder & COO, Aerologix), who not only nurtured his dreams of becoming a successful new-age entrepreneur in Australia but gladly calls the country his second abode.

Taking hurdles as just minor bumps of his extraordinary journey, it was Rakesh’s perseverance and farsightedness that compelled him to keep smashing the curve balls thrown at him and finally carve his identity as an impeccable industry stalwart. From a Ticket Inspector in Indian Railways to a Chef in a Vietnamese restaurant, a Black Jack Dealer in a Casino, and a Bartender, Rakesh was exposed to various shades of life and aced in every one of them.

Apart from being the Co-founder of R2 Robotronics, an award winning startup in India across the drone tech space, Rakesh also holds a brief exposure to the Army life as an Officer Cadet in the Australian Army Reserves, which taught him the values of discipline, courage, initiative, and teamwork. Equipped with over seven years of work experience in the Banking & Financial services industry in IT implementation and project management in Australia and India, Rakesh is passionate about big data & AI to create a value proposition for companies. Under the guidance of Rakesh, Aerologix has emerged as the number one drone pilot network and aerial imaging solution in Australia.

Rakesh engages in an exclusive interaction with CEO Insights.

What are the aspects you take into consideration when creating policies and what are the drastic changes they have brought over the years?
Equipped with a couple of hardworking people we remain bound to some fundamental values and policies that enable us to work efficiently and make our clients happy by coming up with innovative

products. Secondly with a very open and transparent communication system, anyone can reach me or anyone from my team at any time of the day. And our third aspect is about helping each other out. Being a close knit team, we share everything with the team, including where we are in terms of the product the business, the revenues, and the clients we are currently working on. Even before COVID, we have been providing a flexible and hybrid working environment, which also increased the productivity of our company.

How do you ensure to pool in the right partners? How do you know if they can bring the impact you are looking for?
We always respect our partners, as we believe that whatever respect we give to others, we can expect the same towards us. With respect to partnerships, alliances, and acquisitions, we have a couple of principles, and we always try to do the right thing by remaining abided by those policies. Even if it takes a long time, we don't take shortcuts because we don't believe in the easy way of doing things.

We are currently working with Drone Deploy, one of the world's largest drone tech companies. We provide flight services here in Australia as well as in other parts of the world, wherein their clients are looking for a pilot network. We have the largest pilot network, and we assist them accordingly. We also have a partnership with Precision Autonomy and AON for drone insurance, CR Kennedy for drone hardware, Global Drone Solutions for drone pilots training and Nightingale Partners as one of our biggest investors. If a pilot network needs a drone or any equipment, training or just any advice on various opportunities available in this space they can reach out to us. We have recently got funded by one of the biggest VC funds in Australia together with Nightingale Partners who have been of great support.

Define Aerologix as an organization and its position in the market. What USP sets it apart from other competitors in the space?
Aerologix, as we call it ‘Uber for drones’, is a deep tech platform that connects clients looking for ondemand drone data or drone vision, along with drone pilots. We also have a patented 3D flight navigation feature tailored towards a telco inspection so that a drone auto matically takes over. After connecting the drone with our app through the remote controller, the

drone automatically starts flying based on an algorithm around the telecommunications structure. We are quite proud to say that because of this unique solution of the pilot network, as well as the flight app and the algorithm, we were able to capture approximately 50-60 percent market share of the telco inspection in Australia. We are currently working with multiple clients, starting with mostly telco but diversifying into other kinds of inspection services as well.

We have just recently launched a new service called roof inspection, and we are seeing a lot of inquiries for this service using drones and our pilot network. Soon we will be launching a LIDAR solution, as well as a solution for a real estate and due diligence space. There are a lot of buying and selling activities that happen in this segment pertaining to existing assets, telecommunication towers, buildings, bridges, and so on, where the clients would like to know the current state of the structure. So, using our pilot network, not only the clients will be able to take a look at anywhere in the world, but they will be able to get that data, look at the digital twin and then make decisions based on the insights.

So those are some USPs that make our company distinctive compared to others. Also, we are the first Australian company to be approved of both the Android and iOS applications for providing airspace information by CASA, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority body of Australia. Our apps are free, and we have the biggest flying network and inhouse built 3D flight navigation feature, which keeps growing almost every day.

With respect to the company’s future roadmap, where are you headed for, and what are your long term and short term plans?
Currently, we are concentrating on the Australian market. We have been doing really well, whether in telco space or real estate, infrastructure, insurance, and so on. The whole drone tech space is quite a big opportunity to create both direct and indirect employment. So, the short term goal is to concentrate on Australia and capture the market. In the long term, we are definitely looking into international expansion as we want to create the biggest drone ecosystem in the world.

Rakesh Routhu, Co-Founder & COO, Aerologix
As the Co-Founder and COO of Aerologix, a promising drone technology firm, oversee daily operations of the company, which includes IT, Marketing, Sales, Finance, and so on, and simultaneously encourages employees to yield maximum dedication and performance. Responsible for designing and implementing business strategies, plans, and procedures, Rakesh sets comprehensive goals for the overall performance and growth of the organization.

Hobbies:Playing Badminton & Surfing the Internet to know the latest happenings around the world
Favorite Cuisine:Chicken Spaghetti
Favorite Book:'Zero to One', by Peter T