X is the latest ticker symbol to trade right here at the New York Stock Exchange. This is Israeli defense tech and AI robotics company X10. It develops XOS, an AI powered, hardware agnostic operating system designed for human guided autonomous drones and ground robotics. Now, the company ranked the opening bell here at the New York Stock Exchange this morning to celebrate its listing, which took place at the end of last week.
And rather than a traditional IPO, extend went public via a business combination with a publicly listed shell entity. The company raised $60 million through a private investment agreement. Rather than selling new shares to retail public market buyers during the merger. While joining me this afternoon is Aviv Shapira, Extend CEO and co-founder, Aviv.
Wonderful to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
Well, congratulations on ringing the opening bell this morning. So this is something in celebration of the way that you want public. So tell us about the path.
So first of all, very exciting for me as an entrepreneur. You know, something that started as an idea on a piece of paper. Now becoming a publicly listed company after about 7 or 8 years. Um, you know, it's a it's an amazing experience. About 200 people working very, very hard for eight years to get to this point.
But as they say, this is just the beginning. Uh, the IPO, uh, you know, being listed is a platform for us to actually do much greater things. And, I mean, we actually got here by starting the traditional IPO process. And we had an opportunity, um, an amazing opportunity with, with American Ventures to actually, you know, uh, emerge with deconstruction and go, you know, to the IPO much quicker.
And also we have a lot of synergies with them. So we are building our factories across the US, and JB is actually doing that for us. So there's a lot of synergies between us as a companies.
Yes. And you mentioned a key word there and that is opportunity. And I understand that right now defense makes up most of your revenue. So what other sectors and segments are you seeing right now as commercial opportunities?
Yeah. So on on our radar, of course, everything mission, you know, lifesaving mission related. Um, as as our slogan says physical AI for a safer world. So as a company, we've actually solved some of the biggest challenges in robotics. And, uh, when we have to, you know, really focus as a company, we decided that, uh, saving lives is what we want to do.
So obviously, defense everyone, you know, talks about defense and their opportunity there. But if you look at, uh, law enforcement, you know, police firefighting, search and rescue and also private security in these in these places, millions of people really get hurt every day across the world. So for us, you know, great markets, you know, a lot of funding globally, but also, you know, very, very strong mission for us as a company.
So, uh, these are the three markets that we focus on today.
And for our viewers out there who may not be as familiar with Exos, can you explain why this is a competitive advantage, of course.
So first of all, you know, we are a physical AI company. What does that mean? Um, so we're basically building a, you know, robotic forces that actually replace humans in some of the most dangerous missions and complex machines on this planet. Um, Exos is really a software architecture that really connects human intention.
You know, what we want to do with robots and drones and that actually replaces in these very, very dangerous situations. Um, I would say that one of the most, um, you know, greatest benefits is a software company is really the ability to reduce training by something like 95%, but also allow these operators to operate from anywhere in the world.
And that really takes the operator away from the field and allows these robots to actually, you know, take the risk and take, you know, the all the burden from them.
And if you now that you are listed here at the New York Stock Exchange, I'm sure you have gotten this question as well. So how do you intend to split the capital, whether we're talking about R&D or scaling Operations or even acquisitions. What is the plan?
So first of all, uh, you know, the US is our biggest market. So really doubling down on the US market, you know, increasing the factory R&D. Definitely. Um, for us, you know, great opportunity. You know, the things that happened in the past 12 months with, uh, an increasing industrial base for US based companies has been amazing.
But we need to invest more money to actually, you know, create us made NDAA components, drones, obviously the software, uh, we're actually launching a marketplace as well, meaning that everyone can actually join us to give our end users some of the best software and the best capabilities. Uh, they can, they can have.
And finally, before I let you go, there are big defense contractors as well as AI startups that are entering the market here. So what is your primary technical advantage, would you say, over the competition?
Um, so most companies are basically building amazing products, but each company is trying to build the best, you know, physical product on the market. We took a different approach. We understand that these products are just, you know, drones are just the delivery mechanism. Um. We took the software approach.
So we understand that a drone that you buy today still needs to run and operate and be capable two years from now, and that will only happen through the software. So we're actually focusing on basically giving the end users the ability to select their applications very, very similar to your iPhone and Android.
Um, and that is our model basically. So the end users can buy a system and they can continue to renovate it and make it more capable with time. In addition to that, you know, all the industries focused on, you know, industrializing and buying, you know, hundreds of thousands of drones. No one is actually looking at how do you actually get pilots to operate these drones?
So this is exactly the glass ceiling that we've broken. You know, one operator that uses the XOS, our operating system can fly thousands of drones by itself and from anywhere in the world.
And that leads me to my final question. As you were speaking, I was thinking about regulation, not just here in the US, but also around the world. So how are you currently navigating the regulatory environment when it comes to the FAA as well as global aerospace. And how does it affect your vision for expanding into other environments, say, in metropolitan areas or urban areas?
So for for our defense customers, you know, FAA and regulation mostly comes when you want to export, not when you operate, you know, inland or when you operate for the US military or US government. As I mentioned before, we are working with law enforcement, federal and also private security. We have to comply with FAA.
We have to comply with, you know, everything that has to come with, you know, the FCC as well as a US company that is actually in our favor because, as you know, there's a ban on Chinese drones. So for an American company, things are actually, you know, better. We have an advantage. So that's only good for us.
Well, it was great having you here at the New York Stock Exchange. Congratulations on ringing the opening bell. And thank you so much for your time.
Thank you as well. Thank you.
