Arcanus Aerial Systems, a Canadian start-up, signed a binding term sheet with Portugal’s Beyond Vision on 28 and 29 April to build Beyond Vision’s drones in Canada. Six months later neither company has announced the definitive licence, supply and manufacturing agreement the term sheet points to.
The term sheet, under Portuguese law, commits the two only to negotiate that agreement in good faith, Arcanus’s release said. Arcanus has since referred to “the Beyond Vision licence” in the closing paragraph of its releases, without giving terms.
The release set out what Arcanus wanted. It would hold exclusive Canadian production rights for as long as it paid an annual minimum in royalties, and sell to Canadian and Canada-funded customers. Process improvements would be owned jointly, while Arcanus would own its Canadian changes outright.
Beyond Vision builds drones in Alverca, near Lisbon. Its chief executive, Dario Pedro, told the Portuguese business site Eco in June that the deal would speed up its move into North America. He said the company aims to build about 500 vertical take-off drones and 800 multirotors this year.
Arcanus’s order figures are its own: a US$28.3 million order from Liberia, US$84 million of letters of intent from Bulgaria and Chile, and US$3.09 billion of yearly Ukrainian demand. Its release of 21 September says conditional orders, letters of intent and memoranda “should not be construed as binding backlog”.
Its funding is not settled either. In March Arcanus said a Series A of up to US$25 million was nearing its close; no close has been announced. In June it named Rahim Rajwani interim chief executive to lead a planned US listing, and no filing has appeared.
It has a contract manufacturer, FeralX, under a five-year deal with no minimum volume, and a letter of intent for a site at Oro Station, Ontario. No Canadian production of Beyond Vision drones has been announced.
