Flyability SA

Flyability SA is a Swiss drone manufacturer founded in September 2014 as a spin-off from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). It is headquartered in Paudex/Lausanne, Switzerland, with offices in Denver, Shanghai, and Singapore. It is a privately held, venture-backed startup that has raised roughly $40M across multiple rounds (Series A through Series C, with Chevron Technology Ventures among later investors). Public sources put headcount in the 100–150 range. It is not publicly traded.

Products / operations: Flyability designs and manufactures collision-tolerant drones for indoor and confined-space industrial inspection. Its flagship line is the Elios series (Elios, Elios 2, Elios 3), caged UAVs that can bump into obstacles and operate where GPS is unavailable, used to inspect boilers, tanks, chimneys, tunnels, sewers, and nuclear and oil-and-gas assets. The Elios 3 adds LiDAR for real-time 3D mapping. The company also offers the FlyAware SLAM software and the Inspector software suite, plus modular payloads (e.g., ultrasonic thickness measurement). Its customers span energy, mining, chemicals, maritime, and public safety. It is a genuine operating company, not a shell or licensor.

Patent-litigation posture: The single tracked case shows Flyability as a defendant only (0 as plaintiff, 1 as defendant), consistent with an operating company being targeted rather than asserting patents. It does not appear to run an active patent-assertion program.

Notable case: Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. v. Flyability SA (D. Colo.). Cedar Lane is a well-documented Canadian patent-assertion entity (NPE/PAE) that acquires patents — many traced to Intellectual Ventures — and files high-volume infringement suits, frequently in the Eastern and Western Districts of Texas. The Flyability suit was filed in the District of Colorado, not a Texas venue. Cedar Lane's campaigns have historically involved image/data-processing and communications patents, though public reporting does not detail the specific patents asserted against Flyability. No outcome or external litigation-funding details for this particular case were verified.