Tondo Smart breaks into US
- Israeli startup Tondo Smart secured a commercial breakthrough in the United States with a low‑altitude airspace detection system. - The Jerusalem Post says the company, founded by Unit 8200 alumni, targets airports, industrial sites, and public‑safety customers. - Growing U.S. adoption reflects demand for urban airspace management software and sensing as drone use proliferates (jpost.com).
Tondo Smart has run a pilot in Los Angeles for a system that identifies drones in low-altitude urban airspace using existing city infrastructure. (jpost.com) The April 19, 2026 report in The Jerusalem Post said the pilot was carried out by SphereLink, Tondo Smart’s U.S. subsidiary, at a site operated by the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting. The company said the system identified, monitored, and managed authorized drone activity in the area. (jpost.com) (lights.lacity.gov) Low-altitude airspace usually means the band of sky below about 400 feet above ground, where most small drones fly. The Federal Aviation Administration says this layer needs separate traffic-management tools for flight planning, surveillance, authorization, and conflict management because traditional air traffic control was not built for large numbers of drones. (faa.gov 1) (faa.gov 2) The Federal Aviation Administration already requires registration for most drones above 0.55 pounds and runs systems such as DroneZone and the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability, or LAANC, for approvals and data exchange. Companies like Tondo are aiming at a different layer: local sensing that tells a city or site operator what is actually flying nearby in real time. (faa.gov 1) (faa.gov 2) (faa.gov 3) Tondo said its model turns assets a city already owns, including lighting and electricity infrastructure, into a sensor network linked to an artificial-intelligence control platform. On its website, the company says it sells products for urban airspace defense, public-infrastructure protection, and energy monitoring, and says some maintenance tools can cut unproductive truck rolls by 50% to 75%. (jpost.com) (tondo-iot.com) The company was founded by Guy Saadi, a graduate of Israel Defense Forces Unit 8200, and Micha Ben-Ezra, who The Jerusalem Post said has more than 30 years of experience in the electricity market. The same report described the product as a civilian use of technology adapted from Israel’s defense sector. (jpost.com) Los Angeles gives the pilot a high-profile test bed. The city is due to host eight FIFA World Cup 2026 matches, including the U.S. men’s opening match on June 12, 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027, and the Summer Olympics from July 14 to July 30, 2028. (losangelesfwc26.com) (olympics.com) (la28.org) SphereLink says its hardware is pole-mounted and designed to sit on lighting poles or other city-owned structures, with the goal of giving cities “ground & air visibility” without building a separate tower network. That pitch fits a broader market in which airports, utilities, industrial sites, and public-safety agencies are looking for ways to spot unauthorized drones near sensitive locations. (spherelink.ai) (tondo-iot.com) Tondo did not disclose the value of the Los Angeles pilot, and there is no public announcement yet of a wider U.S. rollout. What it has shown is a live U.S. reference site in a city with a large street-lighting network and a crowded calendar of global events. (jpost.com)
