High-potential SMEs

Egm in X-ray: Plant aims at return to profitability thanks to drones

This is the goal for 2025 of the Brianza-based company, which has changed its strategy by focusing on drones and also signing important partnerships

by Valeria Novellini

4 June 2025

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Key points

Numbers
Revenue growth in the first quarter driven by professional services
Sign numerous partnerships with international companies in drones and defence

4' min read

The very generic company name does not help: in fact, it is difficult to find the brianzola Impianti even on the web. But here you have to look especially below the logo (a little man-lamp reminiscent of Edi, Archimedes Pythagorean's Disney sidekick). From April 2024, in fact, Impianti will call itself 'Your Italian tech partner', and no longer 'Your Italian Ict partner', and this is not just a change of name, but of strategy.

Impianti, which landed at Euronext Growth Milan on 16 December 2022, had the intention of developing mainly the telemedicine and e-commerce business, as well as growing externally in the areas of software, cybersecurity, telemedicine and robotics. To date, there have been no acquisitions and, unfortunately, the financial year 2023 was very negative with declines in all revenue lines and a sharp drop in profitability.

The numbers

Thus Impianti decided to focus on a sector that at the time of the listing was still very much 'emerging', but already outlined in the strategy announced at the IPO: that of drones. Obviously one does not reinvent oneself so quickly, but 2024 closed with revenues up 10.4% despite the turnover of the historic core business System Integration dropping 4.8% to 4.1 million. But that of professional services jumped from EUR 892,000 to EUR 2.1 million, e-commerce rose 6.2% to EUR 2.3 million, and the contribution of healthcare - defence, although still minimal, rose from EUR 25,000 to EUR 95,000.

Profit margins were still in the red, but definitely improved, as adjusted ebitda decreased 74.5% to EUR 287,000, operating loss decreased 67.8% to EUR 436,000, and net loss decreased 66.2% to EUR 443,000. The company had net cash of EUR 0.5 million at the end of 2024, up from EUR 0.1 million at 31.12.2023.

Revenue growth in the first quarter driven by professional services

In 1Q2025, revenue rose by 2.4% to EUR 1.38 million, once again driven by professional services (up from EUR 95,200 to EUR 219,500) and the contribution of the Defence segment with EUR 70,200 (not present in 1Q2024), while the System Integration segment stood at EUR 681,000 (-2%) and e-commerce fell by 26.7% to EUR 407,500. The order backlog as at 31/3/2025 amounted to EUR 4.4 million, of which EUR 1.9 million stemmed from a framework agreement signed in 2024 with a leading Italian energy company for the supply of LedWall systems (maxi screens for advertising and information video communication) and not yet fully processed (still EUR 3.1 million left for 2025).

Systems at the end of September 2024 created a specific section dedicated to advanced aerial mobility and in April 2025 created the brand 'Drone4Italy - Tech for Smart Mobility'. It markets the drones of the Chinese colossus Dij as well as the drone logistics solutions of the Swiss company RigiTech (remember that drone parcel delivery has already been implemented by Amazon in the United States and at the end of 2024 the first test was carried out in Italy in San Salvo, in the province of Chieti). On the other hand, Impianti has a marketplace on Amazon (Impianti.biz) which was renewed in July 2024 to include drone offerings.

Signed numerous partnerships with international companies in drones and defence

However, the company emphasises that drones, as can be seen in recent international war events, cannot only be used for peaceful purposes. This is precisely why at the end of April it was selected by a defence company to supply an anti-drone system worth 0.8 million, an order that will be fulfilled in the fourth quarter of 2025. Impianti is among other things the exclusive distributor for Italy of Fortem Technologies, a US company and international leader in C-Uas (Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems) anti-drone systems, and has signed a partnership with the start-up Strada Artificial Intelligence Srl, a Rome-based company specialising in the dynamic management of drone flights through advanced digital applications.

Also in the defence sector, partnerships were signed in 2025 for the commercialisation of solutions by the Canadian Haivision for secure video transmissions in control rooms and command and control centres, and with the French Epsi for the commercialisation of continuous wave radar and detection systems for the protection of sensitive sites.

Impianti is thus configuring itself as a true 'drone marketplace' that can offer solutions and products for both e-commerce and defence purposes. And it also acts as an enabler of public opinion on this issue by constantly participating in conferences and meetings on the subject and, soon, at the "Sicurezza!" trade fair, to be held in Milan from 19 to 21 November 2025.

Thanks to the planned diversification of the activities of all four business units and the cost rationalisation already started in 2024 and which will continue at least until 2026, Impianti aims to return to profitability in 2025. Will it succeed? For the business units 'System Integration' and 'Professional Services' (still by far the most important for the company), a slight recovery is being observed, and of course the contribution of defence-related activities will grow, while in e-commerce there is currently a marked weakness in sales of smart-working-related products.

New commitment to sustainability issues

A special feature of Impianti is its strong focus on ESG issues. Since 2020 it has been drawing up a sustainability report and has numerous certifications in this regard (by 2025 it is expected to obtain ISO 14064-1 on the Carbon Footprint) and in 2024 it was the first SME to sign the 'Manifesto for Gender Equality in the Supply Chain' promoted by the Winning Women Institute. It also won an award in the Open-Es Camp initiative promoted by Eni with the 'N.I.C.E. Learning' project, which uses artificial intelligence to create training content on sustainability.

Impianti's share price currently stands at just over EUR 1 per share, below the IPO price of EUR 1.2, but above all well short of the warrant exercise price for the last available period (EUR 1.6 per share), which will take place in the first half of December 2025. The company, as mentioned, is not in financial straits and has net liquidity, but for the strengthening especially in the 'new' drone market a little more financial means would be desirable. Since the defence sector was strengthened, the market's attention towards Impianti has definitely increased, but the volume of trading and the very small free float (less than 21%) unfortunately do not help.