Israeli-based StrixDrones opened a drone docking station manufacturing facility in Washington Twp. last year. It recently rolled out its first docking station built at the local plant.
So far, the company employs two technicians to manufacture its patented universal and fully autonomous drone docking station, and subcontracts from local materials suppliers.
Itay Zamir, Vice President of Business Development, says the Dayton Regional Israel Trade Alliance was a major pull to bring the company to the area.
“Its whole purpose is to connect Israeli companies and more specifically startups with the region and offer help in terms of, for example, suppliers, finding the right partners and help with recruiting employees. So for us, or I guess for any foreign company wanting to enter the U.S. market, that's huge.”
Zamir also said the company has liked working in the region because of the availability of skilled workers. It has more orders for its DroneDock and anticipates hiring around 10 more employees to fill those.
“We need, of course, people that have technical skills in terms of they know how to work with, you know, for assembly, you need to know how to read blueprints, select the right tools, etc. But more than that, we were looking for people that can solve problems by themselves because we give a lot of, you know, we trust our employees. So for us, it was very important to find that kind of employee.”
In the next couple years, Zamir hopes to expand to a 20,000 square foot facility. There, it would build every DroneDock component in-house and potentially create 50 jobs.