Malaysian drone technology firm Aonic has secured $10 million in a Series A round led by regional investor Kairous Capital, according to its statement on Tuesday.
Kairous Capital is backed by Malaysia’s National Fund-of-Funds Jelawang Capital through its Emerging Fund Managers’ Programme.
Aonic will use the fresh capital to accelerate its regional and global expansion, deepen R&D, and increase production capacity for its Malaysia-built drones and software systems.
According to DealStreetAsia’s DATA VANTAGE, Kairous Capital injected $5 million in Aonic, marking the company’s first fresh capital raise since its maiden external funding round in 2022.
The transaction gives Kairous a 7.9% stake in the company, making it the third-largest shareholder. Founder and CEO Cheong Jin Xi remains the controlling shareholder with 67.8%, while Wavemaker Partners holds 18%, based on filings.
Cheon Jin Xi, Founder and CEO of Aonic, said the company has spent years building its engineering, manufacturing and operational capabilities to support field deployment at scale. “This funding enables us to expand globally with the same level of consistency and reliability we’ve achieved in Southeast Asia,” he said in a statement.
“We have been searching for transformative food and agri-technology for a long time, and Aonic is a rare Malaysia-based company that can deliver across Southeast Asia at scale,” said Adrian Hia, Partner at Kairous Capital.
Founded in 2016, Aonic provides integrated drone solutions focused on agriculture and industrial use cases, targeting labour-intensive and high-risk tasks such as crop spraying.
The company designs and manufactures its drones and proprietary software in-house, giving it end-to-end control over product development and cost structures. Beyond hardware, Aonic supports adoption through training, financing schemes, and agricultural input retail services.
Aonic operates more than 50 3S (Sales, Service and Spare Parts) centres across Southeast Asia to provide after-sales support. It is among the leading players in the agricultural drone segment in Malaysia and Thailand.
The company has recorded triple-digit compound annual growth since 2022 and has been profitable since 2023, reaching over $60 million in annual revenue, according to the statement.
Currently, Aonic’s drones are deployed in more than 15 countries across agriculture, plantation management, inspection and industrial services. Aonic aims to make drone adoption more accessible to both smallholders and large estate operators with lower upfront barriers and measurable productivity gains.
