Beam Global, the Nasdaq-listed maker of energy storage, EV charging and smart city infrastructure products, said on October 7, 2026 that it had signed a share purchase agreement to buy ScoutDI, a drone company based in Trondheim, Norway.
The purchase price is about $24 million, paid in a mix of cash and Beam stock. According to Dealroom, which reviewed Beam's filing, the split is 90% cash and 10% stock, with 15% of the price held in escrow for 18 months. ScoutDI's sellers can also earn extra payments if drone and software revenue in 2026 and 2027 exceeds 150% and 160% of 2025 levels. Beam said it had secured commitments for non-dilutive financing to cover the cash portion.
The deal is expected to close in November 2026. ScoutDI chief executive Nicolai Husteli will continue to lead the business inside Beam, and Beam plans to keep ScoutDI's sales, engineering and manufacturing sites in Norway.
What ScoutDI built
ScoutDI was founded in November 2017 as a spin-off from the Department of Engineering Cybernetics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and its AMOS centre of excellence. Its founders had spent years researching how drones can navigate where GPS does not work.
The company's main product is the Scout 137 Gen3, a drone system with AI-assisted software that inspects confined spaces such as tanks, cargo holds and other hard-to-reach industrial assets. The aim is to replace scaffolding, rope access and people climbing into dangerous spaces with a single flight, cutting downtime and cost while producing inspection data that can be compared over time. Its Scout Portal software brings in recurring subscription revenue.
ScoutDI says it has customers in 30 countries, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Oceaneering and Ørsted, and inspection firms DEKRA, Applus+, Kiwa and Apave. Shell, Petrobras and Equinor also use its technology in the field.
“Joining Beam is an exciting next step for ScoutDI.”
A route into the US market
The Scout 137 Gen3 was the first European drone system, and one of the first four overall, to receive Conditional Approval from the US Department of Defense. That approval means the system has been exempted from the Federal Communications Commission's Covered List and can be sold in the United States, but it depends on ScoutDI following a plan to move production onshore.
Beam intends to build ScoutDI's drones for the US market in its existing American factories, and to serve Europe and the Middle East from its European plants in Serbia alongside ScoutDI's Norwegian facilities. Beam chairman and chief executive Desmond Wheatley said the company already makes batteries for drones, robots and submersibles, which he argued could make Beam a vertically integrated US drone maker that also produces its own batteries.
Husteli said US manufacturing was the key to commercial, government and defence customers in the United States, and that ScoutDI wanted to use Beam's footprint to push its technology, including work on fully autonomous flights, into new industries.
The shareholders
ScoutDI's main shareholders are DNV, Equinor Ventures and Klaveness. All three will receive Beam stock as part of the deal, which Beam chief executive Desmond Wheatley said brought highly respected investors into the company's shareholder base.
Beam did not disclose how much ScoutDI had raised in total or what its 2025 revenue was. Dealroom's reading of the filing says the 2026 earn-out targets $2.4 million, with a maximum of $3.8 million, and pays nothing if revenue falls below $3.5 million. For 2027, sellers would receive $2 for every $1 of revenue above $4 million.
Why Beam is buying
Beam describes itself as operating where energy, transportation and smart city infrastructure meet, with factories in Arizona, Illinois and Serbia and a facility in Abu Dhabi. The company sees ScoutDI's dual-use technology as a way into defence and security work as well as industrial inspection, and points to a June 2025 US executive order that tells federal agencies to favour American-made drones.
Beam also listed other places a confined-space drone could go: inside tall buildings, lift shafts, mines, tunnels and sewers, and into structures ahead of police or soldiers. The company cautioned that the deal may not close on the agreed terms and that ScoutDI's US approval could be changed or withdrawn.
