A school dropout’s journey to becoming a drone entrepreneur in the Middle East
Rabih Bou Rached founded Falcon Eye Drones, a drone solution-providing company, when commercial drones were not common in the Middle East.
From operating in the food and beverages (F&B) industry to managing a drone fleet seems farfetched. But that’s the story of Rabih Bou Rached, who believed in aiming for the stars.
At the age of 17, Rabih, a school dropout, left his home in Lebanon to earn money. For some time, he waited tables and even launched his own restaurant.
Realising the limited growth opportunities in the F&B sector, the entrepreneur decided to dabble in real estate, manufacturing, and other industries.
“We have so many sugary drinks in the market; we don’t need any more. But how did an energy drink company like RedBull become so big? I wanted to do something similar and big in Dubai,” Rabih tells YourStory Gulf Edition (YS Gulf).
Always on the lookout to do something bigger, he had a breakthrough when he was introduced to the idea of flying drones as a service during a business trip to Dubai.
“Until then, drones were used as war machines. But they had so many other use cases like mapping, inspection, and even saving people’s lives. I started educating myself and found a couple of drone enthusiasts from Germany and France. We started talking about building and flying drones, and soon, the dream became a reality,” Rabih recalls.
In 2014, Rabih established (FEDS) as a drone solutions-providing company in Dubai. Today, the startup primarily collects data and develops reports using its drone fleet for its clients. Besides, FEDS also resells drones.
The company has served around 450 clients, spread across the agriculture, infrastructure, and logistics industries, including Aramco, Saudi Electricity Company, Transco, Dubai Municipality, Nakheel, DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority), Majid Al Futtaim, and Ministry of Climate Change and Environment UAE (MoCCaE), among others.
The company did not reveal the subscription costs, reselling value, and revenue details to YS Gulf.
Team Falcon Eye Drones
Scope in the Arabian sky
Rabih always found the Middle East to be a hub of opportunities for startups. He felt the civil aviation sector, especially related to drones, has a huge potential to improve.
As per Mordor Intelligence, the drone market in the GCC region was valued at $0.88 billion in 2021, projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 14% between 2022 and 2027.
It was uncommon to see commercial drones in Dubai when Rabih launched FEDS. “Countries like the UAE have good drone regulations that promote research and development and better opportunities. Since the country is small, the impact is not enough,” Rabih says.
“We were flying drones in the UAE under the purview of the government. But the rules that applied to our company were for helicopters,” he adds.
While the authorities in the UAE welcomed the startup, the company had to change its licenses almost five times in the initial three years as the government periodically introduced new rules and regulations.
“Bigger countries like Saudi Arabia are slowly picking up in terms of introducing regulations. But the regulations, as a whole, in the MENA region, need to keep up with the growth in drone technology,” he explains.
In the initial days, the company had to struggle to find people who knew how to fly drones.
FEDS maintains a fleet of a few hundred drones—mostly multi-rotor, fixed-winged, and small—which can fly into confined spaces. They are procured from manufacturers based in China and Switzerland.
In 2020, Malaysia-based drone asset-management company Aerodyne invested an undisclosed amount in FEDS in return for a 49% stake in the company, which boosted FEDS’ global presence.
The partnership helped FEDS to have 11 headquarters across the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. It also saw its team expand from 50 members to almost a thousand people.
In the Middle East, the Dubai-based company’s 50-member team overlooks operations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and Jordan.
Some of its competitors include Japan-based Terradrone and CyberHawk, a US-headquartered drone company.
Future Plan
FEDS aims to expand further globally. Although, the team did not disclose its preferred region.
It also wants to become a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company, where in the next few years, the startup will focus more on collecting and analysing the data that drones collect.
FEDS also has plans to be a fleet management company for other fleet owners, which would mean the company would reduce its fleet and maintain, clean, and manage those of other fleet owners.
Rabih says, “In the next three to five years, this will be a prevalent model in the drone industry. Today, getting a drone licence is fairly easy compared to ten years ago. Why would they need someone to provide drones or fly drones for them when they already own one?”
“However, there will be demand for people who know how to process the data collected by drones. There will also be a need for people who can take care of their fleet. And, we can offer our services for these two areas,” concludes Rabih.
(This story was updated with client information received from the company.)
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Edited by Suman Singh