Cape Town

The problem

When someone goes missing in the mountains or at sea, the first few hours decide everything. Search teams are often volunteers working with limited budgets, and helicopters are expensive, scarce and grounded by bad weather. Rescuers frequently know roughly where to look but lack enough eyes in the air to cover the ground quickly. Every hour lost reduces the chance of a good outcome, especially at night or in cold conditions.

Why now

Search and rescue organisations have wanted aerial support for decades, but helicopters are expensive and early drones were fragile, short-ranged and hard to fly in bad weather. Recent improvements in thermal sensors, battery life and autonomous flight changed what a small team could do with a modest budget. Climate change is also increasing the frequency of floods, wildfires and extreme weather events, while more people than ever are hiking and sailing in remote places. Rescue teams face growing demand with limited resources, and they are actively searching for tools that multiply the impact of every volunteer.

The founders

Lerato Mokoena flew rescue helicopters for a decade and saw too many searches end hours too late. Sam Pieterse built thermal imaging systems for industrial inspection and understood how to find a warm body against a cold landscape. They met at a volunteer training weekend on Table Mountain, where Sam was demonstrating a prototype camera, and decided within a month to build a company together.

Why we invested

Elias spent a weekend with Cape Town’s volunteer crew during a training exercise and came back convinced the product was already saving lives. Their drones could launch from the back of a vehicle in under two minutes, fly coordinated search patterns automatically and stream thermal detections directly to the incident commander’s tablet. Just as importantly, the founders designed for the reality of rescue work: gloved hands, poor connectivity and exhausted volunteers. We invested because the mission was meaningful and the product was clearly built by people who had done the job.

How we helped

We helped Cape Town structure a pricing model that works for volunteer organisations, combining low-cost leases with grant-funded programs. Elias introduced the team to search-and-rescue leaders in three countries, which opened their first international deployments. Our platform team supported them through aviation certification in new markets and helped them recruit an experienced program manager to coordinate grant applications.

Where they are now

Cape Town’s drones now support rescue organisations on three continents, flying hundreds of missions every year. The company’s open data program lets teams share flight plans and coverage maps during large searches, preventing duplicated effort when multiple agencies respond. Lerato and Sam recently launched a maritime version designed to operate from small boats in rough water. Every confirmed rescue is logged on a wall in their office, and the wall is getting crowded.