SafeSight drones grow angel wings

North Bay company SafeSight is the winner of a local PITCH event hosted by the Northern Ontario Angels (NOA).

The drone company was one of three to appear before a panel of judges and pitch their product/service in the hope of securing capital from angel investors.

The other two companies were North Bay’s MetricAid, which has developed a physician-scheduling software to reduce emergency room wait times, and Toronto-headquartered Rna Diagnostics, which has developed a cancer diagnostic method to improve the lives of patients undergoing chemotherapy.

SafeSight, led by president Mike Campigotto, specializes in scouting mines with drones, cultivating data, and saving both time and money for mining companies, which would normally need to send people to complete these missions.

Campigotto said they aren’t the first to delve into this market, but most drone technology is built for above-ground missions, while SafeSight is developing ways to scout below ground, where much of the technologies aren’t as sophisticated.

“We’re raising visibility and awareness of the opportunity that we’re creating for economic growth in North Bay and our company. The funds that we receive are essentially going to be used to expand our technology portfolio and software to create a best in class with the latest tech drone capabilities,” Campigotto said.

“One of the mile markers for the industry right now is that it’s being aggressive with change, especially into digital, so 10 years ago it would be typical that it would move slowly, but now a lot of the industry leaders have five-year plans to full automation.”

To date, the NOA says it has closed 194 deals with more than $77 million invested, creating more than 1,350 full-time positions and 956 part-time positions.