AntiGravity CEO on New 8K 360-Degree Drone

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00:00Just talk us through it, because obviously the drone market is highly competitive, there's

00:03a lot of different products on the market as well, but in your opinion, what makes yours

00:08different?

00:09Well, from the first moment that we incepted the product, we wanted to do something that

00:13nobody else did.

00:15And the Antigravity A1 is the world's first fully integrated 360 drone.

00:20That means it captures everything around you, and you don't need to worry about where the

00:24camera is pointing and where you're facing.

00:26All you do is enjoy the flying experience, and then you can pick your angles and moments

00:30later in post.

00:31So, what that allows you to do is anybody who's thought about flying a drone, but you're not

00:35a trained camera person, or you don't know how to compose shots, it gives you the ability

00:40of a professional creator in something that's small and easy to fly.

00:44So we basically opened the market for people that never even imagined that they would be

00:47able to fly a drone.

00:48We've just been actually showing it to our viewers as well, you can see there, but this

00:53is a drone that was five years in the making, or you were saying 10 years really, if you

00:57count as well the input from Insta360 as well.

01:00What's been the reception so far to it, and where are you seeing most sales?

01:04Yeah, so actually we started shipping the units a little less than a month ago, and since

01:10then the feedback has been remarkable.

01:12People are really understanding that this is something new that they haven't seen before,

01:16and for existing drone pilots, they realize that it's a level up on what they've experienced

01:21before, which is a single-lens fixed drone that was limited in where you could fly it

01:25and how you could fly it, to now being able to capture everything.

01:28And then for consumers at home, it gives you the ability to experience the world in a whole

01:33different way.

01:34So again, yes, this is five years of R&D and about $150 million in development, plus our

01:40friends at Insta360 really helped incubate this company by allowing us to use their 360 technology.

01:46So the way it works is, there's a lens on the bottom of the drone, there's a lens on

01:49the top of the drone, and the software stitches both lenses together in real time.

01:55And when you put on our goggles, you're getting a fully stitched 360 video, you can look around

02:01in any direction.

02:02So if you've ever used a VR headset with pre-recorded content on it, you get to experience that, but

02:06in real time.

02:08And the drone can be hovering in one direction, you can be looking around in any direction in

02:13the headset independent of where the drone is moving.

02:16So there's a ton of different use cases for this drone.

02:20From a consumer standpoint, you can...

02:24Let me back up.

02:25Here's what I tell everybody.

02:26When you're flying a regular drone, you're flying a camera.

02:28And that's really, really cool by itself.

02:30When you're flying the anti-gravity drone, you become the camera and you become the drone

02:34and you're soaring through the air.

02:36So as kids, we used to have three different types of dreams.

02:39We were either running away from something, falling or flying.

02:42This brings you back to those childhood dreams.

02:45I do want to ask though, the timing of the launch is probably not what you wanted to see

02:49with the FCC ruling on restricting foreign-made drones.

02:52How is that actually impacting your business and what changes do you think you need to make

02:56as a result?

02:57Yeah, the timing is interesting.

02:59But fortunate enough, the A1 is fully FCC compliant.

03:04It's available for sales in the US and actually in over a hundred countries worldwide.

03:09And repair business is strong.

03:11So if anything ever happens, you can ship it and get it serviced.

03:13So there's no issues for the A1.

03:16For future products, we are definitely looking at all options right now, including US-based

03:20manufacturing.

03:21And in terms of our worldwide split, the US and China performed very well for us in the

03:26first month.

03:27But Europe is not far behind.

03:28I would say it's a pretty equal split between all regions worldwide.

03:31So as you think about anti-gravity and the markets that you target, would you say that

03:37you would be deprioritizing and de-risking from China if you're looking to maybe manufacture

03:41away from the mainland market and also to seek growth markets outside of China?

03:46Well, it's not essentially deprioritizing China.

03:49It's coming up with a better way to sustain the business long term.

03:53China is always going to be a consumer market for us.

03:55Folks in China absolutely love the anti-gravity A1.

03:59So we're not going to veer away from that, but we're also going to make changes to the

04:02business in order to make sure that the US consumers can get the latest and greatest

04:06anti-gravity products.

04:07So yeah, all options are on the table.

04:10We also are working with our lobby groups and legal partners to explore what the boundaries

04:17are of the new term.

04:18So it's very early right now.

04:19This was just announced and I think other companies are kind of in the same boat where

04:24we're evaluating and seeing what's possible.

04:26Okay.

04:27To grapple with, I guess, as a CEO in this position.

04:30But what do you think then in terms of the fundraising outlook?

04:34Because you have some, obviously you spun out of Insta360, you've had some very high profile

04:37backing.

04:38How much capital do you need essentially to move forward and where are you looking to source

04:42that?

04:43Well, actually when VCs and private equity investors started hearing about the anti-gravity, folks

04:51were throwing money left and right at us.

04:52This is not a joke.

04:53We're oversaturated in how many requests we had to get.

04:56But our main goal is to make this a truly global brand.

04:59And we have VC money coming in from North America, from US, Canada.

05:03We have VC money coming in from APAC regions.

05:05So we're very open in terms of our global priorities.

05:09Long term, we're in a series A round right now and we've raised about 200 million at the

05:15moment.

05:16And that's to sustain the business long term and to fund our R&D efforts for future product

05:20lines.

05:21What valuation on that?

05:22Billion dollars.

05:23Okay.

05:24Okay.

05:25You mentioned earlier that you're looking at targeting an IPO or a listing in the US market.

05:29What's the thinking around that and what would be the timeline?

05:33That's our ultimate end goal.

05:35Obviously, the company just launched and it's very early, but we're long term thinkers and

05:39when the company is ready, we would like to IPO in the US stock market.

05:44Again, timing too early to tell, but we'll see after a couple more generations of the product.

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