Heavy industry and research companies increasingly rely on drone-based data, but finding the right local team or renting a highly specific sensor is often a fragmented, slow, and expensive process. The new Marketplace is designed to help address this practical bottleneck. For project teams in oil&gas, mining, construction, hydrology, and academia, the platform helps reduce the operational burden of building internal drone programs. Whether a university needs water depth mapping for an environmental study or an energy firm requires airborne GPR for underground utility mapping, they can instantly source a verified team with the right equipment. This makes it easier to access professional data collection capabilities without investing in pilot training or hardware maintenance.
Users simply submit a single project request through the SPH Engineering platform, which is then routed to relevant partners. The Marketplace launches with an initial partner base covering Europe, North America, Latin America, the Asia-Pacific, and Africa, with the network expected to expand. To ensure quality and reliability, partners are reviewed based on their technical capabilities, equipment availability, relevant project experience, and ability to support incoming customer inquiries.
"We built this platform to solve a very concrete industry problem," said Alexey Dobrovolskiy, CEO at SPH Engineering. "Project managers and researchers know exactly what surveying data they need, but locating a reliable local drone team with the right payload can stall a project for weeks. At the same time, highly skilled operators often have expensive equipment sitting idle. The Marketplace bridges that gap, creating a trusted environment where demand meets capability without the heavy capital expenditure."
Beyond empowering enterprise end-users, the platform serves two additional groups within the ecosystem:
- Unlocking Access for Engineers: For technical professionals who already have UAV capabilities but lack specific sensors, the Marketplace offers a robust rental network. Users can directly rent high-value, specialized payloads—such as drone-mounted LiDAR systems, Ground Penetrating Radar, magnetometers, and echo sounders—for specific project windows. This approach allows engineers to validate a drone workflow or sensor capability before committing to a major purchase.
- Supporting Drone Partners and Service Providers: The Marketplace also serves an additional channel for commercial drone service companies and hardware partners for hard-industry and environmental clients. By joining the network, partners gain visibility among a highly targeted audience of enterprise clients requiring specialized geophysical and hydrographic data. SPH Engineering facilitates the routing of incoming project inquiries to relevant partners, connecting local operators with complex, relevant enterprise opportunities and allowing them to maximize the utilization of their specialized equipment.
“The Marketplace reflects SPH Engineering's broader mission: simplifying access to advanced drone-based data collection capabilities,” added Alexey Smirnov. “Through a network of experienced partners and specialized equipment providers, organizations can efficiently execute complex geophysical and hydrographic operations in any environment.”
To find a drone service provider with specialized equipment, or join the network, visit the Marketplace at www.sphengineering.com/marketplace.