French underwater drone maker Exail's order intake surges more than 500%
The maker of underwater drones and navigation equipment said its order intake for the first quarter totalled 487 million euros ($554.30 million), boosted by a new contract for drone systems worth several hundred million euros.
The company did not give further details on the deal, announced in February, when it said it was placed by a "leading Navy".
Exail is the latest small defence tech supplier propelled by prospects of a military ramp-up in Europe as the region increases its defence budgets, after shrinking them for decades.
Its shares have gained 153% so far this year.
The company reported a backlog worth 1.1 billion euros ($1.25 billion) at the end of the first quarter. Of total orders, 75% were placed by the defence sector, Exail said in a statement.
Group sales increased 18% in the first three months of the year, supported by the performance of its navigation and maritime robotics business, which accounts for three-quarters of total revenue.
European countries are boosting defence spending and maintaining support for Ukraine on worries that the United States, which has guaranteed Europe's security since the end of World War Two, is no longer keen to do so.
Exail confirmed its 2025 outlook of double-digit revenue growth for 2025.
($1 = 0.8786 euros)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fashion United
an hour ago
- Fashion United
AI start-up ChatBlu raises 500,000 US dollars in pre-seed funding
London-based artificial intelligence start-up ChatBlu, which bills itself as the first autonomous AI agent for multi-platform inventory management, has raised 500,000 US dollars in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Matador Venture Capital, with participation from angel investors associated with Google and Amazon Web Services. The funding will support ChatBlu's product development and go-to-market rollout, which is planned for September 2025. Initially, the AI technology will serve English-speaking markets, with expansion into the Hispanic e-commerce sector planned for 2026. The start-up, founded by 20-year-olds Kristian Lukauskis and Alexander Dillon, aims to solve a widespread pain point in digital commerce: syncing listings, managing stock, and adjusting pricing across storefronts like Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, and WooCommerce by enabling store owners to issue simple, natural-language commands for all backend tasks autonomously across channels. Industry research estimates that poor inventory coordination results in 1.8 trillion US dollars in lost revenue for retailers every year. ChatBlu's team believes its product can help merchants increase conversion rates by up to 20 percent through intelligent listing optimisation and real-time inventory control. Dillon said in a statement: 'E-commerce has evolved, but inventory management hasn't kept up. ChatBlu is here to change that and set a new standard for how stores operate across platforms.' The company was developed within the 2024–2025 cohort of the Genoa Entrepreneurship School, a European accelerator programme that boasts a 75 percent funding success rate.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
UK house prices rise 3.7% year-on-year in June
LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - British house prices in June were 3.7% higher than a year earlier, up from an annual increase of 2.7% in May, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. House price inflation reached its highest in more than two years at 5.5% in March ahead of the expiry of a tax break on many property purchases. Private-sector rents were 5.9% higher than a year earlier in July, down from 6.7% in June and the smallest annual increase since January 2023.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
US-EU trade deal not far from ECB's baseline assumptions, Lagarde says
FRANKFURT, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The trade deal between the United States and the EU is somewhat higher but not far from the baseline assumed by the ECB, Christine Lagarde, the bank's president, said on Wednesday. "The trade deal establishes an effective average tariff estimated to lie between 12% and 16% for U.S. imports of euro area goods," she said in Geneva. "This effective average tariff is somewhat higher than – but still close to – the assumptions used in our baseline projections last June," she said. "The outcome of the trade deal is well below the severe scenario for U.S. tariffs of over 20%."
