Inin Group AS — M&A Activity 2021

May 21, 2021

Elop to enter industry partnership with DEKRA Visatec GmbH

Elop to enter industry partnership with DEKRA Visatec GmbH

21 May 2021 – Elop AS and DEKRA Visatec GmbH, part of the globally active expert organisation DEKRA, enter LOI with intention to finalize commercial agreement in august and to launch their new combined solution in the market early next year.

The two companies intend to combine Elop’s patented rolling ultrasound technology with a vacuum crawler designed for concrete structures to create the “InsightCrawler” – an inspection robot that will be able to climb vertically on concrete infrastructure such as dams, cooling towers and bridges to provide an efficient mapping of its internal condition. By coupling this unique data with Elop’s cloud-based system, infrastructure owners can see interior cracks, air pockets, voids and delamination, allowing them to identify issues that must be addressed at an early stage.

“To enter a collaboration with DEKRA Visatec underlines the global potential of Elop’s technology. The size and geographical footprint of DEKRA group is also illustrative for how we jointly view the market potential for the InsightCrawler,” says Øivind Horpestad, executive chairman of Elop.

DEKRA is one of the leading global providers of industrial inspection services for infrastructure. The DEKRA group has a workforce of around 44,000 people working in approximately 60 countries on six continents and is the world’s largest unlisted expert organisation in the TIC (testing, inspection, certification) industry.

“We are confident that there is a huge market out there, and we believe DEKRA and Elop together can fill the market void for more efficient inspection of concrete structures,” says Marcus Jocham, Vice President Global Services Sales, Mechanized NDT - Robotics - Inspection Technology, at DEKRA Group.

DEKRA Visatec and Elop aim to launch the commercial version of InsightCrawler during the first quarter of 2022.

DEKRA Visatec intends to demonstrate the product within its group companies and, when possible, use the InsightCrawler for ongoing infrastructure inspection projects.

DEKRA Visatec and Elop estimate the possible annual sales volume within Dekra network to be between 60-80 InsightCrawlers within two years after the product is completed, such sales volume expects to increase further in the following years. Each unit is estimated a price between EUR 200-250K.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Øivind Horpestad, Executive Chairman of Elop, tel: +47 910 00 626

About Elop AS

Elop AS consist of the two business units Elop and Simplifai

Elop is a Norwegian technology company that has developed unique and patented ultrasound tools and digital solutions to inspect, monitor and manage infrastructure worldwide. Elop’s vision is to provide asset owners with solutions that improve safety, extend asset lifetime, minimise total lifecycle cost and environmental footprint.

Simplifai operates as a stand-alone business where it develops automation solutions using artificial intelligence to help clients across numerous industry sectors to grow efficiently. For example, Simplifai’s Digital Employee solutions can automate labour intensive work process where natural language communication including email, chat or documents are central. This includes customer relations, case handling, HR and accounting. It also supports Elop with developing their data-driven and AI-based solutions for inspection and monitoring of critical infrastructure.

Elop is headquartered in Norway. For more information: www.elop.no and www.simplifai.ai