Hello Bart, could you please introduce yourself?
My name is Bart Vredebregt, I am 30 years old and I am the CEO & co-founder of Aiir Innovations. I was born and raised in The Hague near the beach. After high school, I moved to Amsterdam to study Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam. Nowadays I live with my girlfriend and our dog, Elmo, in Diemen which is cycling distance from our Amsterdam office.
Could you explain the birth of Aiir?
Aiir Innovations was founded 6 years ago; we celebrated the anniversary last week. I had the chance to work on a project for the Engine Shop of KLM Engineering & Maintenance during the first year of my Masters’ programme. I visited the engine shops a few times and interacted with the borescope inspectors as part of this project. As young IT students, we could not imagine that the most advanced engines were inspected with pen & paper. The result of the project was the first prototype of an AI for borescope inspection which evolved into the Aiir Inspection product which we have on the market today.
Are you focused on aircraft borescope only or are you working on other industries and use cases?
Our first mission is to improve borescope inspections; this is our core business.
In the beginning, we worked with various industries ranging from Oil & Gas to Digital Marketing. Later on, it became clear to us that in order to deliver the most advanced product, we had to focus our attention on one industry. We kind of fell in love with the aviation business where it all started and therefore we decided to focus on aircraft borescope inspections.
Can you tell us more about the Aiir team?
The Aiir team currently consists of a diverse group of 9 people based across Europe. We believe that in an industry like this, it is important to have people from different backgrounds and cultures to ensure that we thrive in the global aviation industry.
The founders have their background in Artificial Intelligence, but we are now expanding the team with more aviation experts, particularly in engine borescope.
What are your objectives for 2022?
We are lucky to already have a good customer base and solid partners but we are always on the lookout for more!
We are working on improving our product and making the borescope inspection as simple as possible as we want inspectors to have a flawless experience. We will accelerate the AI part and work with aviation authorities to obtain the relevant certifications/approvals to further expand our operations
And last but not least, we aim to enjoy the journey!
Thank you Bart