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Mining and steel company (Cherepovets, Russia) announced on June 1 that it has made a second investment tranche into Dutch company Airborne (The Hague, Netherlands), a composites fabricator involved in digital automation manufacturing. The total investment in Airborne is more than $10 million.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic crisis, which has placed many of Severstal’s global venture projects on hold, the company says it has led the new investment in Airborne with support of existing shareholders, including HPE Growth. "COVID-19 has intensified the need for automation across most industries. Where before we pursued digitalization to increase our internal efficiency levels, we are now driven by a necessity to guarantee the safety of our people, and safeguard the continuity of our production processes,” says Andrey Laptev, Severstal director of business development and corporate venture products. “Severstal has also made this investment to support entrepreneurs engaged in breakthrough technologies, and to bring promising companies to the Russian market.” 

Led by Airborne’s involvement in the automotive, construction, shipbuilding, aerospace and electronics sectors, Severstal and Airborne have entered into a technology partnership agreement in Russia. Under the agreement terms, Severstal will be Airborne’s first-choice partner in Russia for the implementation of all composite projects, including the automated production of composite parts.