Preneu, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) specialist company, is expanding its reach into the Central Asian market by establishing a drone production base in Kazakhstan.
Preneu announced on the 5th that it officially opened the manufacturing plant of "KKDS (Kazakhstan-Korea Drone Systems)," a joint venture established with UMR of Kazakhstan's DQB Group.
The establishment of this joint venture began in May 2024 at the Songdo Drone Expo, where Preneu CEO JongKyeong Lee discussed cooperation plans with Yerlan Auezov, Chairman of DQB Group, who was visiting South Korea. The two companies signed a joint venture agreement in Seoul in October 2025 and completed corporate registration in November of the same year.
Preneu is responsible for in-kind investment and supplying key drone equipment to the joint venture. DQB is in charge of the plant site, construction, and workforce investment. Through KKDS, both companies established a collaborative business model to produce and sell finished drones locally.
Technology transfer was also carried out to ensure the stable operation of the local production base. Last February, Preneu invited KKDS employees to its headquarters to conduct specialized training on drone assembly, operation, and overall production technology. In July, technical personnel were dispatched to the KKDS plant in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, to complete customized on-site training for assembly, operation, production processes, and plant management.
At the opening ceremony held on the 29th of last month, KKDS unveiled its phased growth strategy and business expansion roadmap. In its initial stage this year, the company aims to start drone production at a scale of 50 to 100 units per year, with a target of establishing a mass production and sales system of 10,000 units per year by 2028.
Drones produced at KKDS will be supplied to industrial and public sectors, including disaster prevention and response, as well as infrastructure monitoring such as pipelines and gas lines. Preneu plans to use this local production base to full-scale its entry into the Central Asian drone market.
JongKyeong Lee, CEO of Preneu, said, "The opening of the KKDS plant is significant in that Preneu's proprietary drone technology has been recognized in the Central Asian market, securing a global production base. Based on our supply of differentiated core technologies and stable local production support, we will expand our presence in the global drone market beyond Central Asia."