Of the Zadoti small cap conference. My name is Ashisha, and I'm an analyst here at Zadoti. With me today, I have Micropolis Holdings. It trades under the ticker MCRP. I'm happy to welcome Fareed, the founder and CEO of the company. Along with him, we have Dimitri, the CFO of the company. We have about 30 minutes today, including the Q&A. If you have any questions, please submit them at the Q&A section at the bottom of your screen. With that, I will let you take over, Fareed.
Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Fareed, CEO of Micropolis. Let's to go through the company, we have Dimitri also with me, who is also serving as our CFO. We'll talk about the company. Micropolis actually is a Dubai-based company started in 2014 as a digital transformation initiative with the government of Dubai. In 2018, we moved completely to robotics and we ceased it. Of course, we got a lot of support from Dubai Police and the government of Dubai back then, and we took the company step by step to reach these heights. Now, I will try just to slide quickly through the product because this is the most interesting part. Now, what we do, actually, our story is the story of automation. What we saw is that everyone is thinking about automation in a more controlled environment, like inside the factories or warehouses.
We thought automation can be conducted somewhere else, maybe in remote areas, harsh environments, and maybe with operations that rely on labor-intensive. What we did, we built smart mobility platforms coupled with a very advanced autonomous system. We have the M1 and the M2. We developed the entire platform from ground up, including mechanical system, the electronics, power electronics, the battery system, also the autonomous system with the specific mathematical and physical model. On top of these platforms, now we were able to build application-specific pods with a specific control. Okay, something like what you see in front of you. Now we are able to actually customize any robot for any large operation, such as Dubai Police or Border Control, Ministry of Defense, oil and gas, w e have agriculture and environment, municipal services, and so on.
Here, what we did, we built a specific control system based on Cortex- M7, a very advanced microcontroller. The reason why we took this approach is because we could not see any standard controls in the industry. We took the initiative and we restandardized the industry by ourselves. Here, we coupled this with very advanced AI systems with operation room controls as well. What we try to give our customers is a robot with smart mobility functions, with robotic functions, plus operation room controls, plus AI algorithms. Altogether, we were able to achieve very advanced automation for our customers. This is our powertrain. What we thought about, like why we do not create a corner where it has a drive and steering and braking capability. The reason why we are doing this is because we realized that every customer is for.
Or change maybe the steering system. We have multi-steering, like we call it, like you can add the crab walk, you can add donut mode, Ackerman mode, 360 motion. Now we have a robot that can maneuver and move in any direction at any time with any way. What happened now, how we do this actually, we utilize additive and subtractive manufacturing to do so because every single part inside the robot is actually designed and manufactured by us. We utilize additive and subtractive manufacturing methods. That is part of Industry 4.0 initiative in UAE. We use five-axis CNC machining. We use press-break CNC machining or fiber laser, also 3D print, advanced 3D printing like Selective Laser Sintering and printing with advanced material like polyamide 12 and carbon fiber. This is one of our products. This is the Autonomous Police Patrols.
This is a joint project with Dubai Police. Dubai Police, for example, wanted to subsidize some of their patrolling conventional patrols with autonomous patrols with brains. What we did, we customized those two robots for them, like one that can drive in gated communities or more controlled areas. The other one can go to open streets. We couple it with AI algorithms like facial recognition, behavior analysis, suspect matters, and criminal logic so that the vehicle now is able to drive like a patrol but think like a policeman. This is one of our applications. For now, we have in our customer portfolio, of course, apart from Dubai Police, we have the Sustainable City. They just announced the Sustainable City 2.0, which is all based on our technologies, especially when it comes to smart mobility, robotics, AI, IoTs, and edge computing.
We are partners also with the Ministry of Interior, with especially Dubai Police and Abu Dhabi Police. We have also our Saudi partner who actually supplies for us in Saudi Arabia. We customize robots for them. A few units have been delivered to them already. We have also signed with TransGuard Group, which is an Emirates Airlines company. It is the largest security company. They want to adopt our technology. Of course, we have others now in our portfolio like the National Guard, Space42. We have also Tawazun and EDGE. Yeah, we are a very proud member of the Inception program with NVIDIA. They actually helped us develop the edge computing unit, which is based on their AGX Orin. Now, even the computers inside the robots are actually developed by us because thanks to them, actually. Yeah, this is pretty much about Micropolis.
A very important thing about Micropolis is that we are the first two years focusing on selling products just in UAE and GCC in general, but we want to focus on UAE because the market is massive. Our product is in high demand. We can secure mega projects with the government, of course, especially with oil and gas and defense and law enforcement agencies. Also, because it's a very tolerant market, actually, they are helping us to test and validate and certify our products for the coming two years. Once our product is at industrialization level, we can expand worldwide. We're thinking to move later on to the United States in less than two years. This is our objective, to be in the United States and actually manufacture there and start selling in the United States. Yeah, and this is pretty much everything from today.
Before that, I want just to take you on a quick tour inside the facility, which is much better. Let me just move my computer. That's the best part, actually, because I want to show you the real product and how it looks because we customize robots and we manufacture them from ground up. Let me show you what we do. Here we have our—this is our mobility-specific platforms. Just one second.
Yeah.
This is our mobility-specific platforms. This is the M2. Here we have the corner where we develop our own brakes, our own steering system, our own motors as well here. This is the M1. This is the larger platform. This is also a similar design principle. We develop the motors, the brakes, and the steering system, plus the battery system, in addition to the smart power distribution unit.
Of course, here is the main robotic control unit. Let me show you how the—this is how the electronics look like. This is built on Cortex M7. We're very proud of our electronics, actually, because it is a new standard in the industry. Let me show you what kind of robots we are making. We have here the M2 for the National Guard. This is for border control. You can see we have two different robots, but they're exactly the same technology in them. We have, for example, here the container cleaner. We partner with a company called Mainz Cleaning Systems from Sweden. We developed this robot for them. They are targeting 200 million containers worldwide, according to them, of course. We have also in development the M1 for the National Guard. This is also for border control.
We have also the Robotic Forestry Unit for the Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi. This product will be used to plant trees in remote areas, especially in Abu Dhabi preserves with wildlife. They want to boost wildlife while planting more trees. We added the robotic arm. We added the drone launcher for seeding, surveillance system, plowing mechanism. We added also a fertilizer. There is a fertilizer mechanism inside the robot. We have also the M1. This is the Dubai Police Autonomous Police Patrol. Of course, this is fully powered by AI, developed by us as well. This is a production-level vehicle, actually. It is a registered vehicle from Dubai Police. Let me show you how we make them, actually. Here, this is the sheet metal. We cut the sheet metal and we use it using CNC machines.
We use also—so you have products like this. Of course, then we form them using CNC machines as well. From here, from raw material to final product using those advanced machinery, actually, like five-axis CNC machines. We can make parts like this, very advanced parts like precision. Every single part in the robot is actually developed in-house. We use also advanced 3D printing. This is Selective Laser Sintering. Here, we can make parts like this. We design them. We produce them. We test them, validate them also in-house. We also, of course, all the designs actually happen in-house, including electronic systems. Let me show you the electronic systems, how it actually looks. It is quite a big facility. Here, this is our control systems. Those are all our control systems. We have here, for example, the main robotic control unit.
We have the smart power distribution unit. We have also battery management systems. We have also—do you have the edge computing unit here? They are in my office. I can leave it. Okay, we have robotic functionality system. Let me show you how those people are doing their work. Do you have the—yeah. I do not know if you can see the screen. From schematics to final board, the design, okay, we do it in-house. Okay, we want to always own our own technology. Whenever we need to do any modification, customization, it is just in a fingertip here.
Okay, thank you, Fareed. Thank you.
Also, we develop our own edge computing unit based on NVIDIA, actually. This is a mini computer, actually. This is what we put inside the robot. Can be used also.
We can put it in any CCTV camera or any to power any microsystem, but all connected to the same operation room systems that we develop. Sorry, most of the people left for the day, so I would have shown you more. This is all about Micropolis in a nutshell. If you have any questions, let me know. Okay. Yeah, I can't hear you.
Sorry, I'm so sorry. Thank you so much for taking us through the tour, really appreciate it. Yes, definitely. I would like to request everybody in the audience, if you have any questions, please submit them at the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen. I will start with a few of my questions. Can you tell us the software is developed in-house, or do you license it externally, or is it fully in-house?
All in-house. Yeah, we made sure from the beginning we do not develop with third parties because it is part of the supply chain complications. We have actually a full development team for autonomous systems, AI systems, even the conventional software development, all done in-house and all in our servers as well. Yeah, yeah.
Okay. Just relating to that, can you tell us about your production capacity? How much can you produce if there is a need? Yeah.
It is still small. 200-300 robots per year in this facility, which is not enough for later. For today, it is good. It is not bad. In less than two years, we need to actually develop or build a new production facility. We are negotiating with the Government of Dubai. They might give us land here in Dubai. They actually assigned the land to us in Dubai Science Park, 75,000 sq ft.
We're going to build a production facility for the capacity of 5,000 robots, minimum, per year. Yes.
Okay. And if you can talk a little bit about how the sales for the first half of 2025 are going, and how long have you been selling these products? How long have the robots been in the market?
We're still a pre-revenue company, actually. We are in the testing phase now with Dubai Police, National Guard, and TransGuard, three main customers. Soon we'll start testing with Aramco as well. By law, the product cannot go to the street now. By end of 2025, everything will be okay. Soon we'll sign. We're trying to sign contracts by end of 2025. Yeah. Those are mega contracts, actually. They're not small contracts. They're really big. Yeah.
Okay. Will those contracts be enough to the production capacity, like the 300 robots, be enough for those contracts, or will you need to?
No.
Okay.
`Yes, because usually I do not also recommend to our customers to go beyond 100 robots per customer because you still need to deploy. You need to test and validate. It takes time, actually. Yeah. We should not rush to do it, actually.
Right. No, definitely. Can you talk a little bit about how do the customer needs differ across verticals and how adoptable is the AMR platform to use for each use case?
Because see, mobility is mobility, whether it is on the street or off-road. We just need to change a little bit of the, I mean, chassis property, just a little bit, like increasing torque or speed or different suspension systems. It is very light manufacturing. That is the mobility part.
The robotic functionality, because we built something called RFS. It's a control system. I don't know if I have it here. Yeah, this is the control system. There's the RFS, actually, robotic functional system. We can add any actuator, any sensor, any camera to this one. So the customers can ask freely to add any robotic arm and, let's say, any sensor, whatever they want. Depends how they imagine their robot. Actually, we propose to them because first we study the operation, then we recommend to them how we can automate using robotics. Like what happened with the Environment Agency. They told us, "We want to plant trees. We want to be able to plant trees in remote areas or harsh environments," something like this. We propose the solution and we develop the robot for them.
Of course, it will go through multiple testings, like 6 months to 1 year of testing and iteration and modification as well. So it's easy. We do the same thing with every customer. It doesn't matter what kind of customer. It's not relevant. Which industry doesn't matter.
Yeah. Okay. And going forward, could you tell us more about which sectors your robotics could potentially service?
Oil and gas, mainly. Oil and gas, law enforcement agencies, defense, municipal services, facility management. We can talk about agriculture. Those are the main ones. Logistics as well. We have new negotiations with each group for 10 km of logistics, just moving products from point A to point B, something like that. They're very good. But on open streets, not in warehouse. It is in big open streets. Yeah. Controlled environment.
Got it. Can you talk a little bit about how your AMR offerings are different from, say, Automotors or Locus Robotics or Geek Plus or any of the competitors out in the market?
Two things I need to mention here. First, think about Boston Dynamics, for example. They're building a robot that looks like a human. What we're building is not cars. This is a robot that looks like a car, okay? But it's not supposed to move people or have a driver in the seat. It's not how it works. Our product is not vehicles, okay? They look like vehicles, but they're not. This is first. The second thing, many companies, they focus in one sector or one service, okay? For example, logistics, the restaurant delivery, stuff like this. Our business model is completely different. We customize. We develop the base technology to perfection.
Let's say the mobility part, the robotic functionality part, the AI system part as a system, AI as a system. That's a part. And operation room control like mission planner, HD maps. For example, the AI incident management system. We develop this as a base technology. On top of this, we can develop, we customize for each customer. I mean, when we talk about a customer, like when we talk about Ministry of Defense, we talk about thousands of robots. We don't talk about a small fleet. We're talking about swarms, like big fleets. It's worth the efforts, actually.
Right. Can you talk a little bit about pricing now? How much pricing power do you have in these target markets that you're looking at right now, mostly with the government?
Yeah, it's not yet disclosed what will be the prices. There will be a premium price.
In UAE, it doesn't matter because price is not relevant. The government here, they don't ask about how much it costs as long as it works. They will like it more if it's locally developed, but it's a premium price. Yeah, it's not cheap. In a different way, I mean, small companies can't afford it.
Got it. Okay. So it's right. Can you talk a little bit about what the time for your break even is going to be and what is your cash burn right now?
The cash burn now between, let's say, $700,000-$900,000 per month, which is considered very conservative for industry like us. Especially we have like 85 engineers in the company, t his is first. The second thing, breaking even, you can break even with one contract easily. That's not an issue.
Okay. But any timeline for that?
If we succeed to sign contracts, which we will actually, by end of this year, that will be immediate, actually. It's not an issue. You're in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, those deep-pocketed governments, money is never an issue here. Yeah. Not an issue at all. Yeah. Contracts is the last thing you need to worry about. Yeah.
Got it. Can you talk a little bit about how, so once you sell it to the government and they've taken about 100 robots, is there any way that you can keep the revenue recurring after that point? Are there any post-sale services or anything like that? How does that monetize for you?
Of course, there are maintenance contracts, for example. They will keep asking you to scale up. They want 100 robots, for example, will never be enough. Of course, you have to charge for upgrades.
You need to charge for maintenance, a lot of things, actually. Maybe software licenses. If they buy the edge computing unit, they will keep asking and increase the number of, for example, if you use it for CCTV cameras, they will ask for, keep asking for more. One customer, you do not stop. When you engage with one customer, it will go a relationship forever, actually. Yeah.
Okay. Can you talk a little bit about what the competitive landscape in Dubai right now looks like? Anybody else working with the government or?
No. In Dubai, it does not exist. In Abu Dhabi, it does not exist. In Saudi Arabia, it does not exist. We are kind of unique in the region because here either they localize another technology, okay, for one single sector, or that is it. I mean, or they just come up with something simple. Nobody took it to this scale.
We're the only company in GCC. You can look it up, actually. The only company in GCC who dared to go to this route, actually. It is a very difficult path. Vertically developing a product is very difficult. We were lucky with our people. It wasn't the investment money we received what made the company possible. It's the people we have. We have top engineers in the country. It's all intelligent. I look like the dumbest one in the company, to be frank. Everyone is way more intelligent than I am. Yeah. True. Yeah.
Can you talk a little bit about the typical return on investment and payback period for a client in terms of savings over labor?
Very good question. I'll give you an example. For example, Dubai Police, each patrol costs them in OpEx at AED 2.6 million per year because they have to employ eight employees in four shifts, for example, apart from maintenance and other expenses, the underminerations and many other things. Imagine if, let's say, if this robot will cost, each one will cost them $200,000-$300,000. This robot will work for five years, 24 hours, not complaining about anything. Just feed him with some electricity and be happy. Something like that. I mean, imagine the cost reduction. It's a lot, actually, especially when remote areas or high-crime areas. We don't have high-crime areas in Dubai, high, high, I mean. With places that Dubai Police don't go to usually. Imagine how much money you're saving and you're augmenting the operation. We're not just automating. We're augmenting their operation. That's the best part for them.
We increase the efficiency. Now we can free up more policemen, for example, to go to respond to serious incidents or something like this. This is the idea behind the augmentation and automation of our technology. It is a lot, yeah, a lot of reduction. Yeah.
Okay. I would just like to end by asking you, can you sum up the value proposition for investors who are looking at Micropolis right now, and what is it for them?
Okay. First, imagine NVIDIA in 2010 when they moved from conventional GPU to CUDA architecture. Now they fuel the cryptocurrency industry by mining and the AI industry. Okay? We are here today. We are doing something that we can only do, competitors struggle at, and customers want the most. Imagine the future. I will not give promises, but you can imagine it yourself.
We came up with the product like no one dared to touch it, and people want it really bad. Okay? I'm talking about big customers. They're waiting desperately, okay, to finish all our pilot projects and testing to start signing those big contracts. Imagine the return on investment for the investors who are actually buying our stock.
Okay. Thank you so much. It is certainly an exciting market and an exciting time for your company. With that, we are at our time. Thank you very much for sharing your story with us and taking us through your facility. I would also like to thank everybody listening here. Thank you for spending your time with us today. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.